Can ANY PDF Be Made Accessible?

Digital accessibility is no longer optional—organizations must ensure their PDFs are usable for everyone, including people who rely on assistive technologies like screen readers. But one question comes up again and again: Can any PDF be made accessible?

In most cases, yes. However, the answer depends on the PDF’s quality, structure, and how it was originally created. Let’s take a look at what makes a PDF accessible, the scenarios where remediation is straightforward—or nearly impossible—and how modern tools dramatically streamline the process.

What Makes a PDF Accessible?

An accessible PDF allows people with disabilities to navigate and understand its content using assistive technology. This depends on structure, tags, readable text, accurate reading order, and meaningful descriptions for non-text elements.

Why Structure and Tagging Matter

Tags identify headings, paragraphs, lists, tables, and more. Without tags, screen readers cannot understand the document’s hierarchy or provide navigation shortcuts. Proper tagging transforms a visually formatted document into one that is logically structured. Without these tags it would be like trying to find something in a city with no street signs. 

WCAG and Section 508 Requirements for PDFs

To be accessible, PDFs must meet standards such as:

• WCAG 2.1 AA (or 2.2 AA depending on requirements)

• ADA Title II and III

• Section 508 for U.S. federal agencies

These standards call for perceivable text, operable navigation, understandable layouts, and robust document structure.

See our PDF Accessibility Checklist for an easy guide to what the laws require and how you can make your content compliant.

Are All PDFs Candidates for Accessibility Remediation?

Most PDFs can be remediated, but their condition determines how much work is needed.

Born-Digital vs. Scanned PDFs

• Born-digital PDFs (exported from Word, InDesign, etc.) typically contain selectable text and are the easiest to remediate.

• Scanned PDFs are simply images of text and require OCR (Optical Character Recognition) before they can be tagged or read by assistive technology.

Common Accessibility Challenges

Even high-quality PDFs often have issues like:

• Incorrect or missing reading order

• Missing or incorrect tags

• Complex tables

• Images without alt text

• Decorative elements incorrectly tagged

These problems are solvable with the right tools and workflows.

When a PDF May Not Be Fully Remediable

Some documents cannot be made fully accessible due to poor source quality or structural limitations. However, remediation may still improve accessibility significantly, and alternative formats can be provided when necessary. 

If there is still no way to recover usable text, or the document is still otherwise inaccessible, the best solution may be to re-create the document.

What Prevents a PDF From Being Made Fully Accessible?

Certain conditions make a PDF difficult—or sometimes impossible—to remediate to WCAG compliance.

Low-Quality Scans and Illegible Text

Blurry, faded, or crooked scans degrade OCR accuracy, making text unreadable to screen readers. If text cannot be identified by OCR or by adding Alt Text, accessibility cannot be fully achieved. 

Complex, Unstructured Layouts

Examples include:

• Newspaper-style multi-column layouts

• Complicated forms without clear labels

• Stacked, overlapping text

• Infographics with dense embedded content

These may require extensive manual work and still might not reach perfect compliance. 

Embedded Images of Text Without OCR Potential

If a PDF contains text baked into images—such as screenshots or photocopies of handwritten notes—OCR may not recover usable text, leaving the content inaccessible.

How AI-Powered, Automated Tools Improve PDF Accessibility

Sometimes, the question of whether or not a PDF can be made accessible is simply a matter of choosing the right remediation tool. Manual tools and those not specifically designed to tackle remediation, such as Adobe Acrobat, can make a PDF seem impossible to remediate, or at least very difficult. Dedicated accessibility tools like Equidox are designed to make PDF remediation easy, using AI-powered, automated features to address many of the most difficult elements of remediation. 

Automated Tagging and AI-Assisted Workflows

Equidox’s AI-powered engine identifies each page element. The user is then able to identify each element as a heading, text, list, image, or table, and can quickly and easily remediate each type using AI-powered Smart Detection features. Simply adjust the relevant sliders for perfectly remediated tables, lists, and more. It then applies accurate tags automatically. 

Equidox also features built-in OCR capabilities, allowing users to add and edit content in text tags to scanned documents from within the software. 

These features reduce the hours typically required to fix complex PDFs in legacy tools to mere minutes.

Reducing Manual Labor and Remediation Backlogs

By automating the most time-consuming remediation tasks, Equidox enables organizations to:

• Process large PDF collections rapidly

• Reduce staff time spent on repetitive fixes

• Meet WCAG, ADA, and Section 508 deadlines more consistently

• Scale accessibility initiatives without adding additional full-time specialists

Yes, Almost All PDFs Can Be Made Accessible

The vast majority of PDFs can be remediated to meet WCAG and ADA standards, especially with modern AI-assisted tools. Even challenging documents can often be improved significantly, and alternative formats can fill gaps when a PDF cannot be fully remediated.

If your PDF remediation project seems overwhelming and even impossible, contact us to learn how Equidox software can make compliance achievable.

Nina Overdorff

Nina comes to Equidox with years of sales and marketing experience from a variety of industries and holds a BS in Language Arts Education. Nina has a passion for words, storytelling, and information, which she believes everyone should have access to regardless of ability. After spending time as a teacher with a blind student, she became much more aware of the limitations and abilities of web accessibility, and how essential it is to those experiencing disabilities. “Being able to access information equally ensures that everyone has an equal opportunity for education, employment, and success in life.”