LaTeX Accessibility Checker

Free · Online · WCAG 2.1 AA / ADA Title II readiness · No signup

Upload a LaTeX template, class, or project and get a free, honest accessibility readiness score: whether it will produce a tagged PDF, which packages block tagging, whether the math is readable, and what to fix first for WCAG 2.1 AA and ADA Title II. No signup, and we are clear about what no automated tool can promise.

Drag your file here, or

No file selected yet.

Best for: .tex, .cls, .sty, or a project .zip. A compiled .pdf works here too.

What this LaTeX accessibility checker looks at

PDF tagging Whether the LaTeX will produce, or the PDF already has, a tag tree of headings, lists, tables and figures. Untagged PDFs read as an unstructured wall of text to a screen reader. In LaTeX this comes from \DocumentMetadata{tagging=on} on a recent TeX Live.
Critical
Alt text, language & title Alternative text on meaningful images (\includegraphics[alt=...]), a declared document language, and a real title: the metadata assistive technology relies on.
Per image
Math accessibility Whether equations are exposed as MathML (navigable, readable by NVDA+MathCAT and JAWS) rather than a flat image. This is the hardest part of STEM accessibility and needs UA-2 / PDF 2.0.
STEM
Package compatibility Whether the packages your template loads are known to break tagging. Some older packages (for example titlesec, or beamer for slides) are not yet tagging-compatible and can scramble the output.
Cited data
The check runs on your LaTeX source (.tex/.cls/.sty/.zip) or a compiled .pdf. Your file is analysed and discarded immediately; only the report is kept, briefly.

The rules: WCAG 2.1 AA, ADA Title II, PDF/UA

WCAG 2.1 Level AA The technical standard for accessible web content and documents. For a PDF it means tagged structure, logical reading order, alt text, a declared language, sufficient contrast, and navigable math.
The standard
ADA Title II The US Department of Justice's 2024 rule adopts WCAG 2.1 AA for state and local government entities, including public universities. Larger entities comply by April 2026, smaller ones by April 2027.
Apr 2026 / 2027
PDF/UA (ISO 14289) The PDF-specific accessibility standard. Current LuaLaTeX can produce PDF/UA-2 with MathML math when configured with pdfstandard=ua-2 and a MathML math setup.
Tagged PDF
This tool checks documents against these standards. It does not determine your legal obligations, and private institutions may be covered through other rules such as Section 504.

What still needs a human

Alt-text quality Software can confirm that alt text exists, but not whether it actually describes the image usefully. A person has to read it.
Human
Reading order & screen-reader test Whether the document reads in a sensible order, and how it actually sounds, can only be confirmed by testing with a real screen reader (NVDA, JAWS or VoiceOver).
Human
This is why the report is an automated readiness assessment, not a certification: it flags what software can verify and is honest about what it cannot.

How to make your LaTeX accessible: thesis templates, journal classes, and tagging

Most advice online about LaTeX accessibility is out of date, and university thesis templates and journal classes are where it trips people up most. This is the setup that works in 2026, and the same setup this checker tests for.

The switch that turns tagging on

Modern LaTeX produces a tagged PDF from the kernel itself, no extra package required. Put \DocumentMetadata{lang=en-US, pdfversion=2.0, pdfstandard=ua-2, tagging=on} before \documentclass and compile with LuaLaTeX on TeX Live 2025 or newer. On Overleaf: Menu, then Compiler set to LuaLaTeX, TeX Live 2025. If your document has equations, add tagging-setup={math/setup=mathml-SE} so the math is tagged as MathML.

Alt text, language, and a real title

Tagging gives the document structure; you still supply the content assistive technology reads. Give every meaningful figure a description with \includegraphics[alt={what the image shows}]{...}, declare the document language in \DocumentMetadata, and set a real title with \title{} plus hyperref metadata. These three account for most of the failures this checker finds in real documents.

Why your template may refuse to cooperate

Tagging rewrites how LaTeX builds the page, so packages that patch the same internals can break it: titlesec is the best-known case, and older university thesis and journal classes often load such packages for you. That is the real reason a document can do everything right and still fail to produce a tagged PDF. This checker reads your preamble against the tagging-compatibility data published by the LaTeX team and names the specific package blocking you.

Which LaTeX accessibility packages still matter

If a guide tells you to load accessibility.sty, close it: the package is abandoned and produces broken tagging on current systems. axessibility was a useful stopgap that attaches the LaTeX source of each formula, but it is not a substitute for MathML tagging. tagpdf was the development package of the LaTeX team and its work now ships inside the kernel. In 2026 the honest answer is: you do not need an accessibility package at all, you need \DocumentMetadata and an up-to-date TeX Live.

We'll Fix Your LaTeX Thesis Template to be WCAG 2.1 AA / ADA Title II Compliant

We update LaTeX thesis and journal templates so every future PDF compiles with proper accessibility features, including PDF tagging, reading order, alt text, MathML, bookmarks, and semantic document structure

Get a Flat-Fee Quote