If you’ve ever opened a PDF only to have your screen reader jump around randomly, announce “blank” repeatedly, or skip entire sections of content, you’re not alone. These frustrations are the daily reality for millions of users with disabilities trying to access untagged or poorly tagged PDF documents. Let’s explore why PDF tagging matters and how to do it right from the perspective of the people who need it most.
The Real Pain Points: What Users Actually Experience
Before diving into technical solutions, it’s crucial to understand what goes wrong when PDFs aren’t properly tagged. Users with visual impairments report several recurring nightmares:
Navigation chaos:
Screen readers rely on document structure to navigate content. Without proper tags, users can’t jump between headings, skip to specific sections, or understand document hierarchy. Imagine trying to read a 50-page report linearly, word by word, with no ability to scan or skip ahead. That’s the reality of an untagged PDF.
Lost context:
Images without alternative text are announced as “image” or simply skipped entirely. Data tables without proper structure become unintelligible strings of numbers. Forms become impossible to fill out when fields lack proper labels. Users waste hours trying to decipher content that should take minutes to understand.
Reading order disasters:
PDFs with multi-column layouts, text boxes, or complex designs often have scrambled reading orders in untagged documents. Screen readers might read footer text before body content, jump between columns mid-sentence, or skip content entirely.
Keyboard navigation failures:
Users who can’t use a mouse find themselves trapped when interactive elements like buttons, links, and form fields aren’t properly tagged and ordered. They can’t tab through forms logically or activate controls without proper markup.
Practical Steps to Create Tagged PDFs Accessible
The best time to address accessibility is during document creation, not after. Here’s how to build accessibility in from the start:
1. Use authoring tool features:
Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and Adobe InDesign all have built-in accessibility checkers and export options that preserve structure. Use heading styles, not just large fonts. Use built-in list formatting, not manual bullets. Use table tools, not tabs to align data.
2. Configure export settings correctly:
When converting to PDF, enable accessibility options like “Create Tagged PDF” in Adobe or “Enable screen reader structure” in other tools. These aren’t automatic they require deliberate selection.
3. Run OCR on scanned documents:
If you must work with scans, use quality OCR software first. Adobe Acrobat’s enhanced OCR preserves layout while making text selectable and readable.
4. Check and remediate tags:
Use Adobe Acrobat Pro’s Accessibility Checker or specialized tools like PAC 3 to identify issues. The automated checks catch common problems, but manual verification of pdf accessibility ensures tags make logical sense.
5. Test with actual assistive technology:
When to Outsource Your PDF Accessibility Task
For organizations with extensive digital content libraries, the reality becomes overwhelming quickly. If you’re managing hundreds of PDFs across multiple websites, product documentation, archived reports, training materials, and legal documents, manual remediation becomes unsustainable. A single complex PDF can take hours to properly tag and remediate. Multiply that by thousands of documents, and you’re looking at years of work.
This is where specialized accessibility remediation services become essential. Companies like DocumentA11y, Apex CoVantage, and similar providers employ teams of trained accessibility specialists who handle PDF remediation at scale. These experts bring several advantages that in-house teams often lack:
Speed and efficiency:
Professional remediation teams process documents significantly faster than occasional practitioners. They’ve developed workflows, tools, and expertise that accelerate every step of the process.
Technical expertise:
Complex documents with intricate tables, mathematical equations, scientific notation, or multi-layered graphics require specialized knowledge. Remediation specialists understand the nuances of WCAG compliance, Section 508 requirements, and EAA standards at expert levels.
Quality assurance:
Professional services include multiple review stages and testing with actual assistive technologies. They catch issues that automated checkers miss and ensure compliance meets legal standards.
Scalability:
Whether you need 50 documents remediated or 5,000, specialized providers can scale resources to meet deadlines that would be impossible for internal teams.
Cost effectiveness:
While outsourcing has upfront costs, it’s often cheaper than hiring, training, and maintaining an in-house remediation team, especially when considering software licenses, ongoing training, and opportunity costs of diverting staff from core responsibilities.
Consider outsourcing when you’re facing compliance deadlines, have legacy content requiring remediation, lack in-house expertise, or need to process large document volumes quickly. Many organizations adopt a hybrid approach: building internal capacity for new document creation while outsourcing remediation of existing content libraries.
Moving Forward
PDF accessibility isn’t a one-time checklist. It requires process changes, training, and organizational commitment. Start by auditing your most-used documents. Train content creators on accessible authoring. Build accessibility review into your workflow before documents are published. And when facing the reality of thousands of legacy documents, don’t hesitate to partner with pdf remediation specialists who can handle the scale while you focus on preventing future accessibility debt.
You may also like to read,
- Accessible PDF Services: A Complete Guide
- How Legal Professionals Can Ensure PDF Accessibility?
- What Does PDF Accessibility Remediation Mean – Its Process and Benefits?
