One in six people uses assistive technology to read documents. PDF/UA is the standard that lets screen readers follow a PDF the way an eye does — but you have to meet it on purpose.
Why accessibility is non-negotiable
Beyond the human reasons, courts in the US, EU and UK have ruled against organisations whose PDFs excluded disabled users. The European Accessibility Act (EAA, 2025) requires public-facing documents to meet EN 301 549, which incorporates PDF/UA.
What PDF/UA requires
PDF/UA (ISO 14289) specifies that every PDF must:
- Have a logical structure tree (tags).
- Define a reading order independent of visual order.
- Use real text, not images of text.
- Provide alt text for all meaningful images.
- Mark decorative elements as artifacts.
- Use real headings (H1-H6), lists and tables (not fake ones built with spaces).
- Declare the document language and specify changes of language inline.
- Include the document title in metadata; a screen reader announces it on open.
Twenty-item audit checklist
- Document has a title in metadata.
- Document declares a language.
- Every page has a tagged content stream.
- Reading order follows logical sequence.
- Headings use H1, H2… tags, not styled paragraphs.
- Lists are tagged with L, LI, Lbl, LBody.
- Tables use real T, TR, TH, TD tags.
- Table headers reference the correct scope.
- Images carry alt text.
- Decorative images are marked as artifacts.
- Figures have a Figure tag.
- Form fields have accessible names and tooltips.
- Links have descriptive text (not “click here”).
- Colour contrast meets WCAG AA (4.5:1 for text).
- No colour-only cues.
- Text size scalable to 200%.
- Fonts embedded.
- Unicode mapping defined.
- No security settings that block screen readers.
- PDF/UA identifier set in XMP metadata.
Common authoring mistakes
“Export to PDF” from Word with heading styles → almost accessible. Export from PowerPoint via “Save as PDF” → often not accessible; use Export → PDF/A with the Document structure tags for accessibility option.
InDesign requires a bit more care: define articles, paragraph styles mapped to tag names, and anchor images.
Repairing legacy PDFs
If you cannot regenerate from source, repair tools can add tags: Adobe Acrobat Pro, PAC (free), and axesPDF are the three we see most. Scanned archives usually require OCR plus manual table tagging.
Our commitment
Every tool page on PDFAPPLE preserves tags during conversion when they exist and warns you when they don’t. For teams working on remediation, our Business plan can emit a PDF/UA compliance report alongside each conversion.
Tags: #PDF accessibility #PDF/UA #Section 508 #accessible PDF #screen reader
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