Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) strives to adhere to the current guidelines for Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and WCAG 2.1 Level A and AA criteria. At this time, all content on our websites is designed to be accessible to screen readers and available accessibility tools, except as specifically noted below.
Accessibility of Patent
All patents from 1976 to present are available in text as well as image formats in our patent search system. Pre-1976 patents are only available in image format. No text versions are available for these archival images at this time. These images are only accessible by patent number and patent classification codes. The USPTO will, on request, provide an accessible equivalent for specific pre-1976 patent documents. This is done on a case-by-case basis. Please contact webmaster@uspto.gov with a description of your request, including the specific patent number.
Filing patent application documents in DOCX
Patent applicants have the ability to file patent application-related documents such as specifications, claims, abstract and drawings in DOCX format. This format is easier to make accessible and it eliminates the need to convert structured text into a PDF for filing. For more information about DOCX, go to our File patent application documents in DOCX webpage.
Accessibility of Trademarks
All trademark images are accompanied by descriptions and design search codes which indicate types of images included in a mark on the trademark search systems.
For Adobe PDF documents
Adobe offers conversion tools for the visually impaired at access.adobe.com.
Reporting accessibility issues
If you encounter what you believe to be an unresolved accessibility issue on our website or USPTO-provided digital services, please report the URL (the webpage address starting with https://www.uspto.gov) by email with an explanation of the issue to webmaster@uspto.gov and USPTO’s Section 508 team, section508staff@uspto.gov.
For more information about Section 508, including how to file a Section 508 complaint, please see our Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act webpage.
Non-English languages
A majority of USPTO website materials are in English only at this time, except for the following notable exceptions:
- The USPTO Global Intellectual Property Academy offers some e-learning modules in multiple languages.
- The USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s New to PTAB webpages are offered in seven languages.
- English and Spanish captioning services are offered during some USPTO hosted virtual events.
- Spanish translation of some of our Journeys of Innovation articles are available.
You can find a number of free translation utilities and software packages by searching for "free translation" on your favorite internet search engine.
Location accessibility and accommodations
Looking for information about reasonable accommodations or accessibility at USPTO headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia, or one of our USPTO locations? Please see our Accessibility and accommodations page.
Reasonable accommodation and personal assistance services
Federal law protects qualified individuals with a disability from employment discrimination and harassment and requires federal agencies to provide them with a reasonable accommodation (RA) subject to legal limitations. For more information, please see our Disability accommodation and personal assistance services procedures webpage.
Use of the telecommunications relay service
Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS) allow persons who are deaf, hard of hearing, deafblind, or have speech disabilities to communicate by telephone in a manner that is functionally equivalent to telephone services used by persons without such disabilities.