Before we begin, let me set expectations. This isn’t a step-by-step tutorial on how to remediate a PDF. Instead, my goal is to provide a strategic framework, one that helps organizations prepare, prioritize, and take meaningful action on PDF accessibility. And here’s a reality check: unless you’ve been creating accessible PDFs for years, chances are most of your files are not accessible.
What Makes a PDF Accessible?
An accessible PDF allows all users, including those relying on assistive technologies like screen readers, to navigate, consume, and interact with its content. At a minimum, this means the document is properly tagged (think of tags as the PDF equivalent of HTML elements), includes a descriptive title, and declares a primary language. These foundational details may seem small, but without them, the document becomes a barrier instead of a resource.
Spotting the Red Flags
You don’t need advanced expertise to identify common accessibility gaps in PDFs. Tools like Adobe Reader or Acrobat provide quick insights:
- Tagged PDF: In Acrobat, if the “Tagged” field reads No, the document has no structure, making it invisible to assistive technology.
- Document Title: If the browser tab shows a cryptic title like 2014-039 instead of a meaningful title, accessibility was not considered during creation.
- Document Language: Without a defined language in the Document Properties, screen readers can’t apply the correct pronunciation rules.
Taken together, these signals confirm one reality: the PDF is inaccessible. Fortunately, there are tools to make this evaluation more efficient.
The Role of PDF Accessibility Checker (PAC)
The free PDF Accessibility Checker (PAC) is a valuable resource for running automated tests and guiding manual verification. PAC generates detailed reports, helping you understand where remediation is required.
This works well if your organization manages a handful of PDFs. But what if you’re dealing with hundreds, or tens of thousands? At that scale, accessibility is no longer a matter of individual file fixes. It becomes an enterprise-level initiative.
Scaling Beyond the Basics: Preparing for Vendor Support
When PDFs exist in large volumes, the smartest path forward often involves partnering with a third-party accessibility vendor. But vendor success depends on preparation. Here’s where many organizations stumble: they simply don’t know the scope of their own content.
A practical starting point is conducting a domain-specific search (for example, using Google’s “filetype:pdf site:yourdomain.com”). While not exhaustive, the results offer a baseline understanding of just how much content is in circulation.
Once you establish scope, the next step is prioritization:
- Active PDFs: Forms, guides, and reports that users rely on today should move to the front of the line.
- Archived PDFs: Older or outdated materials may still need attention, but they can be deferred—or in some cases, removed from scope entirely.
Factors That Influence Cost and Complexity
Organizations often underestimate the variability of PDF remediation. Costs are driven by two main factors:
- Page Count, not File Count: Longer documents naturally take more effort.
- Content Complexity: A simple text-based PDF is far easier to remediate than a scanned, image-heavy, or form-based file. Interactive elements, such as fillable fields, add another layer of effort.
One important caveat: most vendors will not remediate color contrast issues. Those must be resolved internally, or remediation efforts risk being stalled. Aligning your teams early on this responsibility avoids delays later.
The Special Case of Dynamically Generated PDFs
Invoices, receipts, or confirmations generated by your systems require a different strategy. Fixing individual files isn’t enough, accessibility must be addressed at the source level. This often involves remediating the templates or scripts that generate these PDFs so that every output moving forward is accessible by default.
Training: The Often Overlooked Investment
Finally, addressing existing PDFs is only part of the journey. Without training your teams to create accessible PDFs moving forward, you’ll find yourself in a cycle of remediation without progress. Vendors can help here, offering workshops, webinars, or on-demand courses. This investment ensures that today’s accessibility effort doesn’t become tomorrow’s backlog.
Summary
PDF accessibility isn’t just about tagging documents or running a quick test, it’s about building a sustainable, scalable strategy. Most organizations underestimate the scope of their PDF libraries, the complexity of remediation, and the need for ongoing training. A smart approach starts with understanding what makes a PDF accessible, conducting a realistic inventory, and prioritizing active over archived files. From there, organizations must weigh cost drivers like page count, complexity, and dynamic generation while preparing internally for challenges like color contrast.
Ultimately, accessibility requires more than one-off fixes; it demands embedding best practices and equipping teams with the skills to create accessible PDFs from the start. Done right, this shifts accessibility from a compliance checkbox to a proactive, enterprise-wide strength.
I really like this series, Dennis! For the red flags you mention in this, I build a web-based tool a while back that can give that feedback quickly for one or more PDFs: https://code.jasonmorris.com/pdfcheck/
It’s a quick check for inaccessibility, but certainly not a replacement for the strategy and expertise you outline for overall PDF accessibility.