PDF/UA Checker

Free · Online · Is your PDF tagged? PDF/UA and WCAG 2.1 AA · No signup

Is your PDF tagged? Upload a PDF and get a free PDF/UA readiness check: whether it has a structure tag tree, a document title and language, alt text on figures, header cells on tables, and the reading order PDF/UA and WCAG 2.1 AA require. Honest by design about what a machine cannot determine on its own.

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Best for: a compiled .pdf (thesis, article, handout). LaTeX source (.tex, .cls, .zip) works here too.

What this PDF/UA checker looks at

Is there a tag tree? Whether the PDF has a structure tree at all. PDF/UA requires tagged content, so an untagged PDF fails at the first step, no matter how it looks on screen.
Critical
Title, language & DisplayDocTitle Whether the PDF declares a document title, is set to show that title rather than the file name, and declares a language, all required by PDF/UA.
Metadata
Figures, tables & bookmarks Whether figures carry alt text, whether tables expose header cells, and whether the document offers bookmarks so a reader can navigate it.
Structure
Math When equations are present, whether they are exposed as MathML, which PDF/UA-2 supports, rather than a flat image with no alternative.
STEM
Upload a compiled .pdf. Your file is analysed and discarded immediately; only the report is kept, briefly.

The rules it maps to

PDF/UA (ISO 14289) The PDF-specific accessibility standard: a tagged structure tree, logical reading order, alt text, a declared language and title, and, for PDF/UA-2, MathML math.
The standard
WCAG 2.1 Level AA The document accessibility standard adopted by law. For a PDF, meeting PDF/UA is how you satisfy the structure, alt text, and reading-order criteria of WCAG.
The standard
ADA Title II The 2024 DOJ rule adopts WCAG 2.1 AA for US state and local government, including public universities. Larger entities comply by April 2026.
Apr 2026 / 2027
This tool reports PDF/UA readiness signals. It is not a certification and does not determine your legal obligations.

What still needs a human

Tag correctness Software can confirm that tags exist; whether they are the right tags in the right reading order still needs a person to review.
Human
Alt-text quality & screen-reader test Whether alt text is actually useful, and how the PDF really reads, can only be confirmed by a person 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.

PAC, veraPDF, or this PDF/UA checker: when to use which

PDF/UA has an established tool ecosystem. Honest guidance on where each tool fits, including where this one does not.

PAC: the reference validator

PAC (PDF Accessibility Checker), from the PDF/UA Foundation, is the standard tool for formal PDF/UA validation: free, thorough, and the result auditors expect to see. It also includes a screen-reader preview that shows the document the way assistive technology receives it. Its one practical limit: it is a Windows-only desktop application. If you are producing a formal conformance claim, finish with PAC.

veraPDF: validation at scale

veraPDF is the open-source, industry-backed validator. It runs on any platform from the command line, which makes it the right tool when you need to validate hundreds of PDFs in a pipeline, a repository intake, or a CI job rather than one file in a window. The output is a machine-readable conformance report against the standard, not remediation advice.

This checker: fast triage, in the browser

This tool answers the question that comes before formal validation: is this PDF even tagged, and what are the biggest gaps? It runs in any browser on any system, takes seconds, needs no install, and explains findings in plain language with the fix. Because we are LaTeX specialists, it also recognizes LaTeX-produced PDFs and points you at the source-level cause. It reports readiness signals, not certification, and says so.

The workflow that uses all three

In practice they are stages, not rivals. Triage here first: seconds, any platform, tells you whether the document is worth validating at all and what to fix. Fix the problems at the source (for LaTeX documents, the LaTeX accessibility checker shows exactly where). Then validate the corrected PDF formally with PAC or veraPDF for the compliance file. Running formal validation on a PDF that this page already shows as untagged wastes the effort: the result is known.

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