Over the last [N=5] submissions, accessibility has sent back the same fixes: untagged headings, missing alternate text…
Open your PDF document in Adobe Acrobat Pro.
Go to the Tools tab and add the Accessibility tools to your workspace if they are not already present.
Best practiceYou can customize your workspace to keep accessibility tools handy for repeated use.
Select Accessibility from the Tools pane, then run Full Check to identify issues.
Review the Accessibility Checker panel's results and expand each issue to see details.
Right-click on an issue and choose Fix if available, or select Explain for guidance.
NoteSome issues can be fixed automatically, but many require manual remediation.
For reading order issues, open the Reading Order panel from the left Navigation pane and drag items to the correct sequence.
Best practiceUse the Reading Order panel to visually confirm and adjust the logical reading sequence for screen readers.
For tag issues, right-click in the Navigation pane and enable the Tags panel, then edit, add, or rearrange tags as needed.
Best practiceRenaming tags with F2 can help clarify structure for assistive technologies.
To add or edit alternative text, right-click images in the Tags panel and choose Properties, then enter descriptive alt text.
NoteAlt text is essential for non-text content to be accessible to screen readers.
For headings, ensure heading tags (such as H1, H2) are applied to section titles in the Tags panel; right-click and change tag type if needed.
After making changes, rerun the Full Check to confirm all issues are resolved.
Best practiceIteratively check and fix until no critical issues remain.
You can right-click on specific accessibility checker results to get explanations or attempt automatic fixes directly from the panel.
This runs in the Acrobat app - there is no separate API for this task.
Tagging is the most important part of PDF accessibility because tags define the structure of the document. They tell screen readers what is a heading, a paragraph, a list, or an image. Without proper tags, a screen reader cannot understand or correctly read the content to a user, making the PDF unusable for many people.
Remediating an existing untagged PDF can take a lot of time. You will need to manually add tags, fix reading order, and add alt text for images. This is much harder than starting with an accessible source document. It's best to fix the original document (like a Word file) before converting it to PDF, so it exports with correct tags already in place.
| Feature | PDF/UA | WCAG |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Specific to PDF documents | General guidelines for all web content |
| Technology | PDF-specific standard | Technology-agnostic (works for any tech) |
| Use Case | Ensures technical accessibility of PDF structure | Ensures content usability for diverse users |
| Compliance | Often required for regulated PDF work | Widely adopted for digital accessibility |
It is always better to fix accessibility problems in the source document, such as a Microsoft Word file. When you create a PDF from an accessible source, many tags and accessibility features are carried over automatically. This saves a lot of time and effort compared to fixing an already created PDF, which often means manually adding or correcting many elements.