Verify digitized transcripts meet accessibility standards by running the PDF accessibility checker, exporting accessib…
Open the PDF document you want to check in Adobe Acrobat Pro.
Go to the Tools tab at the top of the window.
Scroll through the available tools and select Accessibility to add it to your Tools pane if it is not already present.
Best practiceIf you do not see the Accessibility tool, you can add it from the Tools tab for easier future access.
In the right-hand pane, click Check Accessibility.
In the Accessibility Checker Options dialog, select the desired checking options or leave the defaults.
Click Start Checking to begin the accessibility check.
Review the results in the left-hand Accessibility Checker panel, which will display any detected accessibility issues.
Best practiceRight-clicking on an issue in the results panel provides options for fixing or learning more about the problem.
You can double-click any issue in the Accessibility Checker panel to jump directly to the problem area in your PDF.
This runs in the Acrobat app - there is no separate API for this task.
| Standard | Focus | Use |
|---|---|---|
| PDF/UA | Specific to PDF documents, ensuring technical accessibility features are present. | Often required for regulated work that needs a PDF-specific standard. |
| WCAG | General guidelines for web content accessibility, applies to all technologies, including PDFs. | A broader standard for digital accessibility, frequently used in many regulations. |
Fixing the source document, like a Word file, is better because it saves a lot of time. If the source is accessible, then any PDF you create from it will also be accessible. This means you won't have to spend many hours fixing an untagged PDF after it's already been made.
Yes, even if your scanned PDF is blurry, Acrobat's PDF Accessibility Auto-Tag API can still help. It uses Sensei technology to tag headings, tables, lists, and paragraphs. It can work with both native and scanned PDFs, making it possible to add structure even to less clear documents.
Reading order is the path a screen reader follows through the text and elements on a page. It's important for accessibility because if the reading order is wrong, a screen reader might read parts of the document in a confusing sequence.