PDF Accessibility Checker
Upload a document and find out whether a screen reader can actually read it. You get a scored report against WCAG 2.2 and PDF/UA, the criteria it fails, where it fails them, and what to fix first. Your first report is free.
No sign-up to scan. Documents are never stored: the file is deleted as soon as the check finishes.
What we check
Each finding is mapped to the WCAG 2.2 success criterion an auditor or a legal request will cite, and graded by how much it actually blocks someone.
Tags and structure tree
The layer that turns a page of marks into a document. Without it a screen reader has nothing to read. Maps to WCAG 1.3.1.
Reading order
The order content is announced in, which follows the structure tree rather than the visual layout. Maps to WCAG 1.3.2.
Alt text and artifacts
Meaningful images carry descriptions, and decorative ones are marked as artifacts so they are skipped rather than announced.
Tables and lists
Header cells tagged with the right scope, so a value can be tied back to its row and column instead of being read as loose numbers.
Headings and links
Real tagged headings in a sensible order, and link text that says where it goes rather than "click here".
Language and title
A declared document language so text is not read in the wrong accent, and a real document title instead of the file name.
Form fields
Every field labelled and reachable in an order that matches the visual one.
Colour contrast
Measured by rendering each page and sampling the actual pixels, not by guessing colours from the drawing commands.
Why other checkers report a perfect score on a broken file
A validator reports the rule violations it finds in a document’s structure. If it cannot read the file, there is no structure to walk, so it finds nothing and reports zero failures. Naive tools render that as full marks. It happens with corrupt uploads, files renamed to .pdf, and password-protected documents.
We reject all three with a clear error rather than a score, because a confident pass on a document nobody examined is worse than no result at all: you stop looking. We also exclude PDF/UA rules that are technical conformance requirements rather than real barriers, so a document that a human evaluator would pass is not failed on a syntax detail.
How the scoring worksStandards we check against
WCAG 2.2
The standard almost every accessibility law points to, including the ADA, Section 508 and the European Accessibility Act.
PDF/UA-1
ISO 14289-1, the technical specification for how an accessible PDF must be built. What most procurement rules mean by PDF/UA.
PDF/UA-2
ISO 14289-2, the PDF 2.0 revision. Available as an optional second conformance pass.
Conformance validation is performed with the help of open-source components, including veraPDF. Automated testing cannot judge whether alt text is accurate or whether the reading order makes sense, so results complement manual review rather than replacing it.
Common questions
- How do I check if a PDF is accessible?
- Upload it here. The document is validated against PDF/UA-1 (ISO 14289-1) and mapped to WCAG 2.2 success criteria, then scored by severity. You get the failing criteria, the specific locations, and what to fix first. The first report is free.
- What makes a PDF accessible?
- A tagged structure tree that carries headings, lists, tables and reading order, plus alt text on meaningful images, labelled form fields, descriptive link text, a document language, a real document title, and text meeting WCAG contrast ratios.
- Is my document stored?
- No. The file is held in memory for the length of the check and written to a private temporary file only while the validator reads it, then deleted. Only the findings are kept.
- Can a PDF checker give a false pass?
- Yes, and many do. A validator reports violations found in a file's structure, so a file it cannot parse produces zero violations, which naive tools render as a perfect score. We reject unparseable and password-protected documents with a clear error instead of scoring them.
Before you fix anything
Our guide walks through the fixes in the order documents actually fail, including why scanned files need OCR first and how PDF/UA relates to WCAG.