Accessible PDFs

How to add tags, alt text, reading order, and screen-reader support so your PDFs work for everyone.

Why accessibility matters legally

Section 508 (US federal), the Americans with Disabilities Act, the EU Web Accessibility Directive, and EN 301 549 all increasingly cover PDF documents. Inaccessible PDFs have triggered lawsuits and procurement disqualifications.

The four pillars of an accessible PDF

Tags: every element (heading, paragraph, list, table, image) is tagged with its semantic role.

Reading order: the order in which a screen reader announces content matches the visual order.

Alt text: every meaningful image has a description.

Language and metadata: the document declares its language and a meaningful title.

DocFila's accessible-export feature

When you export a signed PDF from DocFila, you can choose 'PDF/UA-1 compliant'. We add tags, reading order based on the visual layout, and pull alt text from any annotations you added during signing. The result passes Adobe's Accessibility Checker and PAC 2024.

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