Hours to Minutes: How Denver County Court Accelerated Accessibility with CommonLook PDF 

Summary 

Colorado’s HB 21-1110 requires state agencies and courts to meet WCAG standards and certain Section 508 accessibility requirements. Denver County Court faced a daunting reality: Hundreds of legacy documents that include fillable forms, none of them validated as accessible, and a team of two court operations specialists who were new to accessibility. By purchasing Allyant's CommonLook PDF software, the team transformed a compliance mountain into a manageable and meaningful journey. Today, complex fillable PDF forms that once would have taken hours (or proved impossible) to remediate with standard PDF editing tools are completed in minutes, each with an accompanying report validating compliance. 

Highlights

• Mandate met with confidence: Facing Colorado’s HB 21-1110 accessibility requirements, Denver County Court purchased Allyant’s CommonLook PDF software to achieve validated compliance. 

• Hours to minutes: Complex fillable PDF forms that were impossible to reliably remediate with standard tools are now completed in minutes, with a CommonLook PDF validation report confirming compliance. 

• Accessibility beyond compliance: The organization committed to exceeding the legal minimum, building a remediation standard where documents are not just technically accessible, but genuinely usable for every user, including the pro se litigants who depend on them. 

• A self-sustaining team: What started as a two-person effort has grown into a cross-divisional accessibility capability, with trained users across departments sharing knowledge and support, with a consistent remediation standard. 

Objective

Colorado House Bill 21-1110 legally mandates that government agencies, including courts, bring their digital content into compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and relevant Section 508 criteria, covering everything from websites to mobile applications, to documents and forms. For Denver County Court, the stakes were especially high: The court’s forms and documents are primarily used by pro se, unrepresented litigants who depend on digital access to navigate the justice system on their own. Any users with disabilities would be blocked from access. 

Denver County Court set out to accomplish three things: 

• Remediate hundreds of existing legacy documents to meet HB 21-1110 requirements.
• Establish a repeatable, validated remediation process for new documents going forward. 
• Exceed mere compliance, ensuring documents are not just accessible, but genuinely usable.  

Caitlin Cunningham and Rosa Molina, the two Court Operations Specialists who would lead the compliance effort, attempted remediation using standard PDF editing tools. The experience quickly revealed the limits of that approach, including the sheer complexity of many editing tools. Further, without validation in those tools, there was no reliable way to confirm changes they were making to meet accessibility standards. “We didn’t trust that what we were doing was 100% correct,” said Cunningham. “And we wanted to make sure the work we were doing was making a material impact.” 

Solution

After researching government-trusted accessibility software, Denver County Courts selected Allyant’s CommonLook PDF. The decision to buy came quickly; a single consultation was enough to confirm the software met their every requirement. 

Implementation

Cunningham and Molina deliberately mastered the use of CommonLook PDF themselves before training other users, a decision that proved critical to organizational credibility. They then trained a cross-divisional team with the support of CommonLook’s online training modules and Allyant’s office hours support. 

The team maximized the benefits of the software’s capabilities, using both the simplified and advanced editing paths.  They often started with the AI-powered simplified editor to leverage automation to remediate as much as possible, turning to the advanced editor for more complex elements. Molina adds, “Built-in automation frees us up to focus on the elements that need human judgment, saving us valuable time.” 

Did you know?

CommonLook PDF includes an AI-powered simplified editor that accelerates remediation of non-complex documents, with an intuitive editor for non-technical and technical users alike. It also gives users the choice of an advanced editor, which supports remediation of more complex elements within documents.

Workflow

Denver County Court now runs a two-track remediation program: 

• New forms and documents are remediated immediately upon creation, with accessibility built in from the start. 

• Legacy forms are addressed department by department, in a structured, prioritized backlog. 

And the CommonLook PDF validation reports have become the cornerstone of the court’s compliance documentation. Each document-specific report provides a tangible, point-by-point record that accompanies every completed PDF, serving as proof of due diligence for internal stakeholders and regulators alike. 

Results 

Dramatic reduction in remediation time

The most measurable outcomes are speed and efficiency. A complex fillable PDF form, one with text fields, bullet points, and lists that previously could not be reliably remediated with standard PDF editing tools now takes approximately 20 minutes with CommonLook PDF. The old approach wasn’t just slower; it was functionally unworkable. CommonLook PDF made it possible. 

HB 21-1110 compliance with confidence

Denver County Court is now remediating complex documents with the validated proof required to demonstrate HB 21-1110 compliance. The shift in mindset has been equally significant. What once felt like an overwhelming, all-or-nothing mandate is now an achievable, ongoing journey.  

Accessible and usable 

Denver County Court set a higher bar than compliance alone. The team internalized the principle that accessibility does not automatically mean usable and built its remediation standard around both. The resulting documents and forms serve the court’s pro se litigants more effectively—a direct fulfillment of the court’s core mission of equal access to justice. 

A scalable, self-sustaining team 

What began as a two-person effort has grown into a cross-divisional accessibility capability. Team members across departments are now trained, self-sufficient CommonLook PDF users who support one another, share knowledge, and hold one another accountable to the same remediation standard. This peer-to-peer model means the court is not just catching up on legacy documents—it is building lasting institutional capacity. Cunningham adds, “Our civic leadership now extends to accessibility, and we’ve embraced the change for the betterment of every constituent we serve.”