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 communities related to accessibility
- Articles on accessibility
- PDF Days presentations 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.
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
Comprehensive requirements for software that seeks to create fully reusable and accessible PDF 2.0 files … Read more
Explanations of technical terms related to accessibility as used in the PDF and PDF/UA standards.
The Matterhorn Protocol, a free publication, identifies all possible ways to fail PDF/UA-1.
The PDF/UA Reference Suite is a resource for software developers and practitioners interested in best-practices … Read more
The Tagged PDF Best Practice Guide includes guidance for all structure element types and attributes, … Read more
Member communities related to accessibility
The PDF Association's volunteer communities 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 communities:
Exploring pathways to expressing PDF content in HTML.
Formalizing common understandings on processing tagged PDF.
Articles on accessibility
PDF Association members can post non-commercial educational content on pdfa.org.
April 2025 by Duff Johnson
What does it take to build the organizational skills and resources necessary to succeed in ensuring PDF documents are accessible?
January 2025 by PDF Association staff
These new Techniques for Accessible PDF are designed to help software developers, document authors, and remediators create accessible PDF files … Read more
- Previous
- Next
PDF Days presentations on accessibility
These educational presentations were presented at PDF Days events by a wide range of industry experts. Since 2022 PDF Days has been replaced with PDF Week, a technical conference meeting three times a year.
AI has been pivotal in creating tools to automate the generation of accessible and reusable PDF content, evolving from early object detection and pixel-based models to advanced techniques that enable … Read more
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
As the European Accessibility Act (EAA) is in force as of June 2025, compliance is increasingly demanding not only technical accessibility but also clarity of content. This presentation explores how … Read more
Accessibility tags are essential for making PDFs inclusive, but their impact often remains invisible to end-users and stakeholders. In this session, you will discover how PDF Checker transforms tagged PDFs … Read more
Accessible forms: here too it starts with the basic design. Creating accessible forms is crucial and for the forms architect it has been ‘business-as-usual’ for years, he designs websites and … 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
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.
- Previous
- Next