Accessibility of the USPTO facilities, website, and files

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act

The United States Patent and Trademark Office strives to adhere to the current guidelines for Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

At this time, all material on our website should be accessible to screen readers and available accessibility tools with one notable exception: pre-1976 patents are available in image format only. 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 may, 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. 

All patents from 1976 forward are available in text as well as image format in the patent search systems.  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.

If you encounter what you believe to be an unresolved accessibility issue, please report the URL (the hyperlink for the webpage) by email to webmaster@uspto.gov with an explanation of the issue.

Non-English languages

The USPTO Global Intellectual Property Academy offers some e-learning modules in multiple languages. Otherwise, all USPTO website materials are in English only at this time. 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 the USPTO's buildings 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.