When it comes to PDF remediation, most tools on the market require users to have a solid understanding of coding and complex accessibility tagging. For many organizations, that makes the process slow, technical, and frustrating.
Equidox PDF Accessibility Software was designed to change that. Equidox simplifies every step of the remediation process, allowing your team to make PDFs accessible and compliant without needing to become accessibility experts. It is simple enough for even new, non-technical users to start remediating after just an hour of training, while being robust enough for experienced professionals and complex documents.
As one IT administrator explained, “Equidox was more cost-effective and user-friendly than other remediation solutions we evaluated, including Adobe and CommonLook.”
Here’s how Equidox compares to other PDF remediation tools and why it’s the easiest solution available.
1. No Tag Tree Required
Many of the most popular PDF remediation tools require manual, nuanced tag tree interaction to properly define the structure of a document. Not only does that create a steep learning curve for new remediators, but it also opens up a greater margin for error. One incorrect tag can make a file noncompliant or unreadable to assistive technology.
Equidox eliminates tag tree interaction entirely. Instead, it uses intuitive zone-based editing, letting users visually select and label headings, lists, and images directly on the page. This approach makes tagging simple and visual—no coding required.
2. Reading Order Made Simple
Establishing a proper reading order in other tools usually means dragging and rearranging elements in multiple technical panels. It’s tedious and easy to get wrong.
Equidox’s AI automatically detects the reading order and displays it visually in an HTML preview. You can adjust it with a single click, ensuring content reads logically for screen readers without confusion. Equidox’s re-ordering also accommodates multiple columns and complex, magazine-style layouts with ease.
3. Effortless Image Descriptions
Manually adding alt text in traditional tools requires opening individual property menus and hunting through the tag structure.
Equidox streamlines this step by identifying all images automatically and providing simple alt-text fields right in the workspace. Users can quickly describe images and check for completeness—all in one place.
4. Smarter Table Tagging
Complex tables with merged cells are notoriously difficult to tag correctly. Many tools require users to manually define each header and data cell relationship. Using some tools, this can take hours.
Equidox’s Table Editor automatically recognizes rows, columns, and headers. Users can make quick adjustments visually, ensuring accuracy without the technical hassle. Equidox also offers automated, editable table summaries.
5. Accurate, Automatic List Tagging
Lists in PDFs are deceptively complex: what looks like a simple bullet or number list to the eye actually requires multiple pieces of structure for assistive technology users—list container tags, delimiter tags (bullets, numbers, letters, roman numerals), list item tags, and proper nesting of child items.
The Smart List Detector uses proprietary AI to automatically detect list containers, list items, and delimiters in your PDF. Once detected, you can adjust the identified items visually, refining list hierarchy or nested lists with a few clicks—no crawling through tag trees. This approach dramatically reduces time and complexity, making list remediation fast and accurate, even for non‐technical users.
5. Accessible Forms in Minutes
Inaccessible form fields are one of the most common PDF accessibility issues. Setting correct labels, tooltips, and tab order in most software is a painstaking process.
Equidox simplifies this with Form Tagging tools that automatically detect fields, checkboxes, and buttons. Users can label, add tooltips, and verify them in seconds—making forms both usable and compliant.
6. OCR and Scanned Documents
Other tools often require separate OCR (Optical Character Recognition) steps for scanned PDFs, which introduces errors and extra work.
Equidox includes built-in OCR and smart zone detection to convert scanned content into readable, tagged text quickly and easily, ready for remediation. The OCR results can easily be edited for accuracy, if necessary.
7. Consistency Across Documents with Zone Transfer
Many organizations work with templates or multi-page reports that share similar layouts. Other remediation software forces users to repeat the same tagging process page after page.
With Equidox’s Zone Transfer feature, you can reuse tagging structures across similar pages or documents, ensuring consistency and saving hours of repetitive work.
8. Automation That Works
While some tools require manual tag-tree interaction, others may tout hands-off “auto-tagging.” This might sound helpful, but generic auto-taggers can only identify 20-30% of accessibility errors–mostly technical omissions like incorrect heading levels or missing alt text. Human intervention is still needed to ensure tags, reading order, alt text, and more are relevant, useful, and correct.
Equidox’s AI-powered automation accurately detects and tags document elements while still allowing user control for precision. The Smart Zone Detector identifies each PDF element as a “zone,” with guidance from the user. The correct tags are then added upon export after each zone is defined either automatically or by the user’s fine tuning. Automation that works right the first time means faster turnaround and fewer errors.
9. Built-In Compliance Preview
Verifying accessibility compliance can be one of the most tedious parts of PDF remediation. Many tools require exporting the file, running external accessibility checkers, or testing with assistive technology to make sure everything reads correctly.
Equidox eliminates that extra step with its built-in HTML Preview feature. This preview displays your PDF content exactly as a screen reader or other assistive technology would present it—before you ever export the file.
10. Easy to Learn, Scalable to Use
Most remediation platforms demand extensive training and deep knowledge of PDF tags.
Equidox’s streamlined workflow and interface allow anyone to learn in just an hour with included training and support. Teams can easily scale remediation efforts by collaborating on documents and copying repeated templates—without losing accuracy. Any number of users can be added, while organizations only pay for the number of simultaneously active users.
The Bottom Line
Equidox was designed to make accessibility achievable for everyone—not just developers or accessibility specialists.
By removing technical barriers like tag tree interaction, manual reading order panels, complex form tagging, and more, Equidox empowers non-technical users to create accessible PDFs quickly, confidently, and at scale.
As one state accessibility specialist noted, “Before Equidox, PDF remediation was a slow and frustrating task. Now, what took hours takes minutes.”
Make PDF Accessibility Easy with Equidox
If you’re ready to simplify your accessibility workflow and empower your team to create compliant content without the complexity, Equidox PDF Accessibility Software is the answer.
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.”
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