Product has proposed a small labeling change and wants my quick call on whether it needs a new submission. The change …
Open the PDF document you want to check for accessibility.
Click the Tools tab at the top of the Acrobat window.
Scroll through the list and select Accessibility to add the Accessibility tools to your workspace if they are not already visible.
Best practiceIf you do not see the Accessibility tools, you may need to add them from the Tools pane as they are not shown by default.
In the Accessibility tools pane, click Full Check.
In the Accessibility Checker Options dialog, review the settings and click Start Checking.
Best practiceFor a thorough check, ensure all checkboxes are selected before starting the check.
Review the results displayed in the Accessibility Checker panel on the left side of the screen.
You can right-click in the Navigation Pane to show the Accessibility tags panel for more detailed tag inspection.
This runs in the Acrobat app - there is no separate API for this task.
PDF accessibility means making sure a PDF document can be used by everyone, including people with disabilities who use tools like screen readers. It matters because it ensures equal access to information for all users. Many laws and rules require documents to be accessible, especially for government or public use. This helps avoid legal issues and promotes inclusion.
| Feature | PDF/UA | WCAG |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Specific to PDF documents | General for all web content and technologies |
| Purpose | Ensures PDF documents are structured for accessibility | Provides guidelines for making web content accessible |
| Requirement | Often needed for PDF-specific compliance | Widely used for general digital accessibility regulations |
Yes, Acrobat's 'Automatically tag PDF' feature can work on scanned PDFs. It uses smart technology to identify headings, tables, lists, and paragraphs, even in scanned documents. However, remediating an existing untagged PDF, especially a scanned one, can take a lot of time. After auto-tagging, you will still need to manually check and fix the reading order and add alt text to images to ensure full accessibility.
It is much better to fix accessibility issues in the original document, such as a Microsoft Word file, before converting it to PDF. When you create an accessible source document, the exported PDF will often retain those accessibility features automatically. This saves a lot of time and effort compared to fixing a PDF after it has already been created. Remediation in Acrobat is often more complex and time-consuming.