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PDF Accessibility Checker
FreeAudit a PDF against WCAG / PDF/UA accessibility heuristics. Tagged status, structure tree, language, alt text. Free, in-browser.
What you'll get: a 0–100 accessibility score plus per-check pass/fail for tagged PDF, structure tree, language, alt text. For another use, try PDF/A Check.
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Stays in your browser
Free tools run fully on-device — nothing is uploaded to a server.
No watermarks
Clean output, no branding, no daily limits.
Free forever
No signup required. Seriously.
Why people audit PDF accessibility
Accessible PDFs aren't optional anymore — DOJ ADA Title II, Section 508, EN 301 549, AODA. The deadlines are real, the lawsuits are real, and most PDFs fail.
ADA / Section 508 compliance
U.S. public entities must meet WCAG 2.1 AA for digital content under DOJ Title II. PDFs are explicitly in scope. Audit yours before deadlines or complaint investigations.
Pre-publish QA
Marketing teams shipping a customer-facing PDF (whitepaper, brochure). Accessibility isn't just law — it's reach. Tagged PDFs are searchable, reflowable, and AT-friendly.
Education / textbook prep
Schools and publishers face strict accessibility rules. Audit textbooks and course materials before distribution to confirm screen-reader compatibility.
Procurement / vendor review
Buying software or content from a vendor. Their PDFs are part of your accessibility footprint. Audit before signing contracts.
Document remediation triage
Accessibility teams have backlogs of PDFs to fix. Audit to score severity, prioritize the worst offenders, batch the easy fixes.
How PDF Accessibility Checker works
Three steps, no signup, no uploads.
- STEP 1Drop your PDFUp to 100 MB. Byte parser reads structural markers in your browser.
- STEP 2Click Audit accessibilityWe check tagged-PDF flag, structure tree presence, language, title metadata, alt-text presence on tagged figures, encryption, and JS interference.
- STEP 3Review the score0–100 score with per-check pass/fail and severity (must-fix vs should-fix). Each finding includes guidance for how to fix.
What makes pdfcraft ai different
- Same engine Chrome usesPDFium is Google's PDF engine — the one that powers Chrome's built-in PDF viewer. We compile it to WebAssembly so it runs in your browser at near-native speed.
- 100% local processingMost free PDF tools upload your file to a server, process it, and stream the result back. We don't. Your file lives in your browser tab and never touches our infrastructure. Verifiable in your browser's Network panel.
- No watermark, no signup, no daily limitConvert 1 PDF or 1,000. We don't gate on volume because there's nothing to gate on — the engine runs on your machine.
- Honest about limitationsWhen something the tool can't do (encrypted PDFs, cross-reference streams), we tell you clearly instead of failing silently. Same for partial results: sampled vs exact, embedded vs not.
- Open standards, free enginesPDFium is BSD/Apache licensed (free for any use). We don't pay vendor license fees and pass that savings on to you (and to ourselves) as a free, ad-supported tool with no upgrade-to-pro pressure.
Frequently asked questions
Is this a substitute for a real accessibility audit?
No. We check structural markers — necessary but not sufficient for true accessibility. Color contrast, reading-order quality, alt-text correctness, and color-as-only-information violations require human review or rendered-pixel analysis we don't do. Use this as a triage tool, not a final verdict.
What WCAG / standards does this map to?
The structural checks align with WCAG 2.1 SC 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships), 1.3.2 (Meaningful Sequence), 3.1.1 (Language of Page), 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value). PDF/UA-1 (ISO 14289-1) is the PDF-specific accessibility standard and these checks form a baseline — not a complete validation.
Why does my PDF score 0 even though it 'looks fine'?
Visual appearance and structural accessibility are different things. A PDF that LOOKS accessible to sighted readers can be completely opaque to screen readers if it isn't tagged. Score 0 means missing the must-fix structural foundation.
How do I fix the issues?
Most must-fix items (tagged PDF, structure tree, language) require re-exporting from the source application with accessibility options enabled. Acrobat Pro can also retroactively tag a PDF and add language. Alt text for images requires a human author — software can detect missing alt, not invent it.
Is anything uploaded?
No. Pure byte-stream parsing in your browser.
Want to confirm archive standard?
PDF/A Compliance Check verifies whether the document meets PDF/A archive standards (which often align with accessibility requirements).
Try PDF/A CheckRelated PDF tools
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Use cases for this tool
Step-by-step workflows that put this tool to work.