PDF accessibility checker

What this checks, and what it can’t

Under the European Accessibility Act, documents offered as part of a covered service must be accessible, and EN 301 549 chapter 10 applies the WCAG success criteria to non-web documents such as PDF. Each check above names the requirement it comes from: the WCAG 2.2 criterion, the EN 301 549 clause, the PDF/UA-1 (ISO 14289-1) section and the WCAG PDF technique.

• Tags — a structure tree and the “tagged” flag. Without them nothing else about structure exists for a screen reader.
• Language — the /Lang entry, so text is read with the right pronunciation.
• Title — a real title in the metadata, shown instead of the file name.
• Text layer — pages with no extractable text are usually scans that need OCR.
• Headings and figures — heading levels in order and alternative text on every Figure tag, read from the structure tree.
• Bookmarks — for documents of 10 pages or more. This is advice (technique PDF2), not a requirement for a single document.

Automated checks cover only part of PDF/UA. This tool does not check reading order, whether alt text actually describes the image, tables, form fields, colour contrast, or whether decorative content is marked as artifacts. Passing every check here does not make a PDF conformant; a failure here is a real failure. For a full review use a dedicated PDF/UA validator plus a manual test with a screen reader. See how we test, or find an accessibility agency that remediates PDFs.