What Makes a PDF Accessible?
With this article, you will learn what makes a PDF document accessible and how to ensure it meets legal and usability requirements. This is critical for compliance with ADA, Section 508, and WCAG 2.1+ regulations.
The same accessibility laws that apply to websites also apply to PDFs. If your website links to or embeds PDF documents, those documents must be accessible for all users, including those using screen readers.
Why Are Most PDFs Inaccessible?
When users open a PDF through a web browser, it usually loads within the browser’s built-in viewer. Unfortunately, most browsers do not expose the semantic structure of PDF documents to screen readers.
To access a PDF properly, users must download it and open it using a screen reader-compatible tool such as Adobe Acrobat Reader. Even then, many PDFs are not formatted properly, which makes them unreadable for blind or visually impaired users.
This creates a frustrating experience: users go through several steps only to discover the content is still inaccessible.
How to Make a PDF Accessible
To ensure your PDFs are accessible, they must follow WCAG 2.1 and PDF/UA (Universal Accessibility) standards.
Tools You’ll Need
Adobe Acrobat Pro (required for full remediation)
Optional: PAC 2024 (for validating PDF/UA compliance)
Key Accessibility Requirements
To make a PDF accessible, you must manually tag and structure the document. This includes:
Heading Structure (H1, H2, H3…)
Proper Reading Order
Alt Text for All Images
Descriptive Link Text
Tagged Lists and Tables with column and row headers
Labeled Form Fields with tooltips
Language and Title Metadata
No scanned or image-only content unless OCR is applied
No color-only instructions (color contrast must also be compliant)
Adobe Acrobat Settings (when exporting):
When generating a PDF, make sure to enable:
✅ Enable Accessibility and Reflow with tagged Adobe PDF
✅ Document structure tags for accessibility
These options help ensure your PDF is structured semantically and can be interpreted by assistive technologies.
How UserWay Can Help?
UserWay offers manual PDF remediation services to help make your PDF files fully accessible and compliant with legal standards. Our experts manually review and fix all the necessary elements such as tagging, alt text, form labeling, and reading order to ensure your PDFs provide an inclusive experience for all users.
For more information and step-by-step instructions on uploading and remediating inaccessible PDFs, please consult the article: How to Upload and Remediate Inaccessible PDFs Using the UserWay Dashboard
Need more help? Contact the UserWay Support Team — we're here to assist you.
Get in touch with UserWay Support.