Free PDF accessibility checker
Find out whether a screen reader can read a PDF, with plain-English fixes. Free, no sign-up.
What it checks
- Real text, or scanned pictures of text
- Tags, the structure screen readers use for headings, lists and tables
- Alt text on images
- A title, and whether it's shown instead of the file name
- The language setting
- Labels on form fields
- Security settings that block screen readers
Automated checks find only part of the problems. A PDF with no problems found still needs a person to check its reading order, tables and whether its alt text is accurate. This is general information, not legal advice.
Why so many PDFs fail
Most problems come from how the PDF was made. Scans from the office copier are pictures with no real text. Printing to PDF throws away the tags that tell a screen reader what's a heading or a table. And few people fill in the title and language. Our guides explain how to make accessible PDFs from Word or Acrobat and what to do about scanned PDFs.
Have hundreds of PDFs? A free AccessClerk preview finds every document linked from your website, and the whole-site inventory checks the PDFs on your site (up to 25 MB each) and sorts them into what to fix first.