Ensuring PDF WCAG compliance is a critical step toward making digital content accessible for everyone, including people with disabilities. While most organizations focus on website accessibility, PDFs are often overlooked—even though they frequently hold essential information like reports, forms, and policies. This article explains how WCAG success criteria apply to PDF remediation and introduces Equidox’s PDF Accessibility Checklist as a practical resource for creating accessible, compliant, and user-friendly documents.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), set the global standard for digital accessibility. At their core are success criteria—clear, testable requirements designed to ensure that all users can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with content.
Applying these success criteria to PDFs is essential for both compliance and inclusion. Although the process of PDF remediation can seem daunting, the right guidance and tools make it manageable and effective.
To simplify the process, Equidox provides a PDF Accessibility Checklist that maps out the critical elements of accessible PDFs and ties them directly to WCAG standards. Whether you’re just getting started or improving an existing remediation workflow, the checklist serves as a clear, actionable roadmap for achieving PDF WCAG compliance with confidence.
What Are WCAG Success Criteria?
WCAG is built around four guiding principles known as POUR:
- Perceivable – Users must be able to perceive the content (e.g., images must have text alternatives).
- Operable – Users must be able to navigate and interact (e.g., keyboard access is available).
- Understandable – Content must be clear and predictable (e.g., headings are logical, links are descriptive).
- Robust – Content must be usable across a wide range of technologies, including assistive technologies.
Each principle contains success criteria—testable requirements that can be measured. These are further divided into three conformance levels:
- Level A: The most basic requirements.
- Level AA: The standard most laws and policies reference (such as ADA and Section 508 in the U.S.).
- Level AAA: The highest level, which is ideal but not always practical for all documents.
When you remediate a PDF, you’re essentially making sure that your document meets these success criteria. Doing so not only ensures compliance—it also creates a better, more inclusive user experience for your audience.
How WCAG Success Criteria Apply to PDFs
WCAG wasn’t written specifically for PDFs—it applies to all digital content. But many of its success criteria are particularly relevant in PDF remediation. Here are some of the most important, with practical examples and checklist tie-ins.
1. Non-Text Content (SC 1.1.1)
- Requirement: All non-text content, like images or charts, must have a text alternative.
- PDF impact: A chart in an annual report without alt-text leaves screen reader users with gaps in information.
- Checklist connection: Write concise alt-text that conveys meaning. If an image is decorative, mark it as such.
2. Info and Relationships (SC 1.3.1)
- Requirement: Structure must be conveyed programmatically, not just visually.
- PDF impact: A bulleted list that isn’t properly tagged may read as one long sentence to a screen reader.
- Checklist connection: Tag headings, lists, tables, and form fields accurately.
3. Meaningful Sequence (SC 1.3.2)
- Requirement: Content must be presented in a meaningful order.
- PDF impact: If the reading order is wrong, a screen reader might read a sidebar before the headline.
- Checklist connection: Always confirm logical reading order in your remediation tool.
4. Use of Color (SC 1.4.1)
- Requirement: Information should not rely on color alone.
- PDF impact: A financial chart that uses red and green bars without labels won’t work for someone with color blindness.
- Checklist connection: Use labels, textures, or patterns in addition to color.
5. Contrast (SC 1.4.3)
- Requirement: Text and background colors must have sufficient contrast.
- PDF impact: Light gray text on a white background is difficult to read for people with low vision.
- Checklist connection: Test color contrast and adjust where needed.
6. Link Purpose (SC 2.4.4)
- Requirement: Links must clearly describe their purpose.
- PDF impact: “Click here” is meaningless when read in a list of links.
- Checklist connection: Use descriptive link text like “Download Accessibility Report (PDF).”
7. Tables (SC 1.3.1, SC 1.3.2)
- Requirement: Tables must be structured so relationships are clear.
- PDF impact: A table without header tags is incomprehensible to a screen reader.
- Checklist connection: Identify headers, avoid merged cells when possible, and keep layouts simple.
8. Forms (SC 3.3.2)
- Requirement: Form fields must be labeled and provide instructions.
- PDF impact: A job application form without field labels is unusable for assistive technology users.
- Checklist connection: Tag fields with clear labels and error messages where relevant.
Why WCAG Compliance for PDFs Matters
Meeting WCAG success criteria in your PDFs is about more than compliance. It’s about people.
- A student with low vision relies on alt-text to understand graphs in a digital textbook.
- A job seeker with a screen reader needs properly tagged form fields to apply for work.
- An employee with dyslexia benefits from clear structure and readable fonts in training documents.
Accessible PDFs make it possible for everyone to engage with your content on equal terms. And while compliance protects organizations from legal risk, the real benefit is building trust, inclusion, and better communication.
How Equidox Makes Meeting WCAG Success Criteria Easier
PDF remediation doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming. Equidox was designed to simplify the process while ensuring compliance with WCAG success criteria.
Some key features include:
- Smart Detection Tools: Automatically identify text, headings, lists, and tables, dramatically reducing manual tagging.
- Table Editor & List Detector: Turn hours of table remediation into seconds.
- Alt-Text Management: Easily add or edit text alternatives in bulk.
- Preview Mode: See how a screen reader will interpret your document before publishing.
- Reusable Zones: Apply consistent tagging across templated documents for efficiency.
For organizations with large-scale document needs, Equidox AI offers fully automated PDF accessibility for high-volume, templated files—remediating thousands of documents in minutes.
Using the Equidox PDF Accessibility Checklist
If you’re not sure where to start, the Equidox PDF Accessibility Checklist is an excellent resource. It translates WCAG success criteria into actionable steps for remediating PDFs.
You can use it to:
- Train new staff on accessibility fundamentals.
- Check quality before publishing.
- Standardize workflows across teams.
- Document compliance for audits and reporting.
It bridges the gap between technical WCAG language and the practical steps your organization needs to take.
PDF WCAG Compliance: Ensure Accessible, Inclusive Documents
Understanding WCAG success criteria in PDF remediation is essential for creating accessible, inclusive documents. While WCAG can feel technical, the goal is simple: ensure that everyone can perceive, understand, and use your content.
With resources like the W3C guidelines, Equidox’s PDF Accessibility Checklist, and powerful tools like Equidox Software and Equidox AI, your organization can confidently make its PDFs compliant—and more importantly, usable by everyone.
Tammy Albee
Tammy Albee | Director of Marketing | Equidox Tammy joined Equidox after four years of experience working at the National Federation of the Blind. She firmly maintains that accessibility is about reaching everyone, regardless of ability, and boosting your market share in the process. "Nobody should be barred from accessing information. It's what drives our modern society."