PDF accessibility, explained in plain language

The guides

• How to check if a PDF is accessible

  What to look for in a PDF, which free tools show it, and what an automated check can and cannot tell you.

• Untagged PDF: what it means and how to fix it

  Why a PDF without tags reads as a stream of words to a screen reader, how files end up that way, and the ways to add tags.

• ADA Title II and PDFs: what the web rule says about documents

  The United States rule for state and local governments, its dates, and how posted documents fit in, with the official sources.

• AODA and accessible documents: what Ontario organizations do

  Ontario's requirements for web content and accessible formats, who is covered, and the practical steps organisations take.

• PDF remediation cost: what vendors charge per page

  Published per-page prices from remediation vendors, what drives them up or down, and how to estimate a backlog.

• How to remediate hundreds of PDFs: inventory, triage, fix, check

  A four-step approach for a large backlog: list the files, sort them by use, repair the ones that matter, check the result.

• PDF/UA and veraPDF, explained for non-specialists

  What the PDF/UA standard covers, what the open-source veraPDF checker tests, and what a pass does and does not mean.

• Scanned PDFs and screen readers: why OCR is step one

  A scanned page is a picture with no text to read. What optical character recognition adds, and what still needs doing afterwards.

Want to see where one of your own files stands? The free quick check reads a PDF in your browser; nothing is uploaded. For repair and the full independent check, there is Starter, US$79 a month for 100 pages.