inventory

How to Inventory Digital Content and Decide What to Remediate First

Accessibility remediation can feel overwhelming when a department has years of documents, webpages, presentations, forms, videos, and other digital content.

The goal is not to fix everything at once.

Instead, start by identifying what you have, determining what is still needed, and prioritizing the content that has the greatest impact. This approach also aligns with GCCCD's broader strategy of separating legacy-content remediation from expectations for creating accessible new content. 

Step 0: Document Your Process

Before you identify what to inventory, create a spreadsheet or document to track Steps 1-9, something you can easily return to and share with your team. 

Spreadsheets are useful because you can set up columns and rows to assign responsibility, update progress, and link to an item's web presence. 

Step 1: Identify What You Create, Manage, or Share

Start by looking across the digital content your department is responsible for. Your inventory might include:

You do not necessarily need to inventory every file stored on every drive. Start with the materials your department currently uses, distributes, maintains, or makes available to others. 

Step 2: Capture the Basics

For each item, record enough information to understand what it is and how it is used.

Step 3: Ask: Do We Still Need It?

Before remediating something, determine whether it should continue to exist. Ask:

If the answer is no, remediation may not be the best use of your time.

Archive or remove outdated, duplicate, or unnecessary content rather than spending resources remediating it. 

Step 4: Prioritize by Impact

For content that remains necessary, consider who needs it, how important it is, and how often it is used.

Prioritize

Content should generally move higher on your remediation list when it is:

Save for later

Content may be lower priority when it is:

The inventory approach developed for Access GCCCD specifically starts with high-impact and student-facing materials rather than treating every legacy file as equally urgent. 

Step 5: Decide What Happens Next

Once you understand the content and its priority, assign an action.

Step 6: Turn Your Inventory Into a Work Plan

Your inventory should ultimately answer four questions:

Using the document or spreadsheet you created in Step 0, assign ownership, identify any needed training or tools, and set realistic priorities.

Accessibility is a shared responsibility, but that does not mean every employee needs to become an accessibility remediation expert. Content-producing areas can remain responsible for their materials while receiving centralized standards, training, templates, tools, and specialized remediation support as needed. 

Start Small

You don't need to inventory an entire college at once.

Choose one department or one type of content and identify 10–20 high-use items.

For each item:

Then use what you learn to expand the process. 

Remember

Inventory before you remediate.

The goal isn't simply to find inaccessible content. The goal is to make informed decisions about what to fix first, what can wait, what to replace, and what no longer needs to exist. This supports the ACMM emphasis on establishing processes to evaluate, prioritize, remediate, and replace existing digital materials.