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
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 Best Practice Guide provides recommendations for creating documents with complex technical and mathematical content … Read more
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
This page provides external links to all legacy Adobe PDF references and errata, as well … Read more
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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:
Accessible PDF, including oversight of ISO 14289.
Developing techniques and examples for accessible PDF.
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.
June 2026 by Vijayshree Vethantham (Continual Engine)
From untagged content and incorrect reading order to inaccessible forms and missing alternative text, PDF accessibility issues can create barriers … Read more
April 2026 by Vijayshree Vethantham (Continual Engine)
PDF/UA and WCAG are two essential accessibility standards that serve different purposes. Since each standard addresses a different layer of … 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.
June 2026 by Julia Katash (Dual Lab sprl)
Dual Lab announces the release of PDF4WCAG Accessibility Checker 1.10, introducing usability enhancements, expanded localization support, and new document inspection panels.
May 2026 by Hancom Inc.
HANCOM has open-sourced an AI auto-tagging feature in OpenDataLoader PDF that automatically writes accessibility tags directly into existing PDF documents, … Read more
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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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Exposing the relationship between content and tags
These tools provide an on-ramp to understanding tags as demonstrated by the PDF Association’s Techniques for Accessible PDF. Please note our disclosures.
PDF Association members who wish to include (or update) their tools on this page should contact member support.
Commercial software
| Vendor | Tool | Platform | License |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adobe | Acrobat Pro DC | Windows, Mac | Commercial |
| Allyant | CommonLook PDF | Windows | Commercial |
| axaio software | axaio MadeToTag | Windows, Mac | Commercial |
| axes4 | axesPDF | Windows | Commercial |
| Compart GmbH | DocBridge® Communication Suite | Windows, Linux | Commercial |
| Foxit | PDF Editor + | Windows, Mac | Commercial |
| GrackleDocs | Grackle PDF | Online | Commercial |
| IDRsolutions | JPedal | Windows, Mac, Linux | Commercial |
| PDFix | PDFix Desktop Pro | Windows, Mac, Linux | Commercial |
| TargetStream Technologies | StreamEDS | Windows, Mac, Linux (Java, .NET) | Commercial |
Free / open source tools
| Developer | Tool | Platform | License |
|---|---|---|---|
| Allyant | CommonLook PDF Validator | Windows | Free |
| iText (Apryse) | RUPS | Windows, Mac, Linux (Java) | GNU Affero GPL |
| axes4 | PAC | Windows | Free |
| callas | PDFgoHTML | Windows, Mac | Free |
| DocAxess | PDF Usability Checker (PUC) | Online | Free |
| Dual Lab | PDF4WCAG | Online | Free |
| Dual Lab | ngPDF | Online | Free |
| GrackleDocs | Grackle GO | Online | Free |
| The LaTeX Project | ShowTags | Online | Free |
| PDFix | PDFix Desktop Lite | Windows, Mac | Free |
Learn more
Visit Tools for Accessible PDF.