Accessible PDF
Representing the PDF industry via our Category A Liaison with ISO TC 171 SC 2, the PDF Association provides a vendor-neutral platform for PDF’s stakeholders to come together to achieve technical consensus on advancing the specifications and standards that define PDF technology. We are deeply committed to providing the necessary infrastructure, guidance, techniques, and other resources to help developers, regulators, authors and users get on the same page about how to ensure rich, reliable, accessible PDF documents.
Of our current 19 Technical and Liaison Working Groups 5 are directly concerned with advancing the accessibility-related features of PDF technology via publication of various types of guidance, including the Tagged PDF Best Practice Guide, the Matterhorn Protocol, Well-Tagged PDF (WTPDF) (later published by ISO as PDF/UA-2 (ISO 14289-2), and most recently, the beta release of the PDF Accessibility LWG’s Techniques for Accessible PDF.
This page gathers content regarding PDF accessibility from across pdfa.org.
- ISO standards for accessible PDF
- Industry specifications on accessibility
- Other PDF industry publications related to accessibility
- Member working groups related to accessibility
- Articles on accessibility
- PDF Days presentations on accessibility
- Members' news on accessibility
- Members' products & services supporting PDF/UA
ISO standards for accessible PDF
The PDF Association is ISO's and ANSI's committee manager for ISO TC 171 SC 2, publisher of all ISO standards for PDF technology with the exception of ISO 15930 (PDF/X) and ISO 16612 (PDF/VT), which are developed under the auspices of ISO TC 130.
ISO 14289-2:2024 (PDF/UA-2) defines the use of tagged PDF in files conforming to ISO 32000-2:2020 … Read more
ISO/TS 32005 extends ISO 32000-2 to clarify inclusion rules for using tags defined in the … Read more
ISO 14289-1:2014 (PDF/UA-1) defines the use of tagged PDF in files conforming to ISO 32000-1:2008 … Read more
Industry specifications on accessibility
These formal industry publications define the interoperable use of PDF technology for accessibility purposes. All are freely available. Some are also published as ISO standards.
Other PDF industry publications related to accessibility
In keeping with the spirit of the original PDF Reference, all PDF Association publications are freely available.
This document provides guidance and recommendations for application developers who want to create PDF files … Read more
Commercial and free PDF creation, viewing or validation software that exposes the relationship between a … Read more
These Techniques provide atomic example files and test procedures in a vendor-neutral manner, allowing PDF … Read more
An informative representation of the allowable containment of structure element types as defined in ISO/TS … Read more
Explanations of technical terms related to accessibility as used in the PDF and PDF/UA standards.
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Member working groups related to accessibility
The PDF Association's volunteer working groups represent the organization's true purpose and most important feature. Their primary purpose is to develop and obtain consensus on PDF specifications, test-suites, technical and application notes, best practices and other formal industry guidance. Many of these products are eventually submitted for ISO standardization via ISO TC 171 SC 2.
Accessibility is the direct or indirect focus of the following working groups:
Developing techniques and examples for accessible PDF.
Accessible PDF, including oversight of ISO 14289.
Formalizing common understandings on processing tagged PDF.
Exploring pathways to expressing PDF content in HTML.
Articles on accessibility
PDF Association members can post non-commercial educational content on pdfa.org.
December 2025 by Diana Kosovac (PDFix)
We analyzed PDF/UA-1 validation results across multiple commonly used tools using 155 reference files. This article shares key observations to … Read more
June 2025 by PDF Association staff
In support of the International Archives Week theme and its four subthemes, the PDF Association is announcing its forthcoming Best … Read more
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PDF Days presentations on accessibility
These educational presentations were presented at PDF Days events by a wide range of industry experts.
PDF professionals are increasingly expected to deliver accessible, standards-compliant content at scale—while minimizing cost, turnaround time, and error rates. As AI tools evolve, they offer powerful capabilities for automating parts … Read more
ISO 32005 is a new Technical Standard from WG9 (for which I am the ISO Project Leader) aimed at aligning and unifying the capabilities of the PDF 1.7 and PDF … Read more
Mit den Bordmitteln von Microsoft Office oder LibreOffice ist die Erstellung von vollständig barrierefreie PDF-Dokumente nach WCAG oder PDF/UA nach wie vor nicht möglich. Mit jeder neuen Programmversion gibt es … Read more
In Summer 2020 the LaTeX Project Team announced the start of a multi-year project [1, 2] to produce tagged and accessible PDF from existing LaTeX sources with no or only … Read more
Was hat sich seit den letzten PDF Days beim PDF-Export mit Bordmitteln von Microsoft Office oder LibreOffice getan? Die Erstellung von vollständig barrierefreien PDF-Dokumente nach PDF/UA-Standard ist nach wie vor … Read more
At the moment WCAG validation is a legal requirement, while PDF/UA is not (unfortunately). In this talk we make an attempt to perform a gap analysis between these standards, taking PDF/UA-1 … Read more
Members' news on accessibility
PDF Association members have lots to say! pdfa.org provides a means for our members to promote their company, products and services. The PDF Association is not responsible for members' representation of their products or services.
January 2026 by Diana Kosovac (PDFix)
PDFix now offers automated font correction powered by callas software technology, enabling users to fix font issues that cause PDF/UA … Read more
December 2025 by Karina Zander (axaio software GmbH)
axaio MadeToPrint Auto and Standard are now compatible with Adobe InDesign 2026. Version 3.6.361 brings great new features and enhancements!
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Members' products & services supporting PDF/UA
PDF Association members are entitled to post their products and services in the product showcase. And, if applicable, in the PDF Association's list of Tools for Accessible PDF. The members' posting the products listed below are claiming that the product supports PDF/UA-1. The PDF Association is not responsible for members' representation of their products or services.
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