Montrose, CO — Grade B

Public website cityofmontrose.us, population 21,646. Measured on October 23, 2026.

Montrose, COMeasured Oct 2026

ABCDF

Documents found on the public site	422
Missing screen-reader structure	121

Scanned images with no text	96
Fail full PDF/UA validation (veraPDF)	100%
Forms and notices residents use today	32

Estimate from a crawl of 82 pages and a random sample of 120 documents. How we measure

What the numbers mean

We fetched 82 pages of the public site and found 422 links to documents on them. The crawl reached the end of the site.

We downloaded a random sample of 120 of them. 120 opened as PDF files, and of the 105 we could read, 30 (28.6%) had no tag tree, which is the structure a screen reader needs to read a document in order. 24 were pictures of pages with no text layer at all.

As an independent check, 105 documents from the sample were also validated with veraPDF against the full PDF/UA-1 standard; 100% failed at least one rule. That number is always higher than ours: a document can have a tag tree and still fail on reading order, table structure or missing text alternatives. The grade uses the stricter, simpler fact, no tag tree at all.

Of the documents missing structure, about 26.7% look, from their names and location on the site, like forms, notices and guides that residents use today. Those are the ones the Title II rule reaches first. The rest are largely archives, which the rule exempts unless they are still used to obtain a service.

Colorado has its own rule

Colorado's accessibility law, HB21-1110, applies to public entities in the state, towns and counties among them, whatever their size. It asks that their information technology, websites included, meet the standards of the state's Office of Information Technology, which are based on WCAG 2.1 AA. Compliance was due on July 1, 2024.

HB24-1454 added one year of protection from liability for governments that could show good-faith efforts. That year ended on July 1, 2025. The federal Title II dates of 2027 and 2028 are separate from the state rule.

Source: HB21-1110, HB24-1454, Colorado General Assembly.

Documents from this site, one by one

We opened 59 documents from Montrose, CO and tested each one. Every one of them needs work before a screen reader can read them properly. Three are below, with the reason for each.

2026 Priority Waste Schedule.pdf

1 page · Scanned, no text layer

No tag tree: a screen reader has no headings, no reading order and no table structure to work from.
The document is not marked as tagged in its catalog.
Pages are images with no text layer: the text has to be recognized first.
No document language is set, so a screen reader guesses the pronunciation.
No document title is set, so the file name is read out instead.
1 image is present and cannot carry a text alternative while the document is untagged.

DEPOT-RENTAL-POLICY.pdf

3 pages · Text document

Tagged, but no heading tags, so there is no way to jump through the document.
No document title is set, so the file name is read out instead.

2023-2024-newsletter.pdf

8 pages · Tables or form fields · 2 form fields

15 tagged images carry no text alternative.
No document title is set, so the file name is read out instead.
2 of 2 form fields have no label, so a screen reader announces an unnamed box.

These are examples, not the whole list. The full inventory for Montrose, CO comes with an order and names every file. A person confirms every finding before anything is quoted or changed.

If you want to fix them

Repair is priced per page, and our rates are public. For a written estimate for this site, write to us or use the form; we look at the actual files before we quote.

Documents residents use today, missing structure	32
Median length of a document in the sample	2 pages
Estimated pages in that set	64

Most governments start with a much smaller set, the twenty or thirty forms that get the most use, and add the rest month by month. Rates per page.

Request a written estimate How we measure