Accessibility improvements often feel like overhead rather than strategy. Propose how to make accessible versions part…
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.
| Feature | PDF/UA | WCAG |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Specific to PDF documents | General guidelines for all web content and technologies |
| Purpose | Ensures technical accessibility within a PDF | Ensures content is perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust |
| Use | Often required for specific PDF-related compliance | Widely adopted standard for web accessibility across many platforms |
It is much easier and faster to make a document accessible in its original program, like Word. When you export an accessible Word document to PDF, many accessibility features carry over automatically. This saves a lot of time and effort compared to fixing problems in the PDF later, which can be very difficult and time-consuming.
Yes, you can still make a scanned PDF accessible, but it will take more work. Scanned PDFs often lack proper text and structure. Acrobat's auto-tagging API can help by identifying elements like headings and paragraphs, even in scanned documents. However, you will still need to manually check and correct the reading order and add alt text for images.
Automatically tagging a PDF adds hidden labels that describe the document's structure, like headings, paragraphs, and lists. This is very important because screen readers use these tags to tell users what kind of content they are reading and in what order. Without tags, a screen reader cannot properly understand or convey the document's layout and meaning, making it inaccessible.