Accessibility staff seeks $6,000 for Crawford PDF remediation software; board asks for funding options

City staff told the Sarasota accessibility advisory committee on Feb. 5 that large PDF documents (often created in Adobe) remain a major barrier to compliance and that a Crawford remediation license could reduce manual remediation effort.

Staff described a proposed one-time $6,000 purchase for five shared Crawford licenses that would let staff address large PDFs where Adobe’s built-in tools struggle, especially with complex tables. She said Crawford offers a larger managed suite costing roughly $50,000, but the smaller remediation package would require manual work by staff.

Board members pressed for funding options and alternatives. Staff said she had checked state and federal sources and found no dedicated grant programs to cover such a purchase and suggested exploring a municipal consortium — for example with Tampa or Bradenton — to share licenses or ask Crawford about multi-jurisdiction pricing. One board member suggested the city purchasing the software through the general fund during the next budget process rather than using the advisory board’s limited fund.

No formal vote was taken. Staff said she will collect more information about vendor pricing, possible intermunicipal sharing and any vendor demonstration opportunities and bring the matter back at the March meeting for further action.