Coverage & comparison

What simplA11yPDF checks

For accessibility practitioners: a plain-language reference to all 23 WCAG PDF Techniques and a check-by-check comparison to Adobe Acrobat’s PDF accessibility scanner.

PDF1 through PDF23

WCAG 2.2 PDF Techniques

WCAG’s PDF Techniques are best-practice guidance for meeting Web Content Accessibility Guidance (WCAG) in PDF documents. simplA11yPDF can verify or partially verify whether many of these techniques have been correctly applied.

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vs Adobe’s PDF Accessibility Checker

Adobe Acrobat Pro comparison

Adobe’s PDF Accessibility checker is the industry standard but requires a paid license or a paid API key. The table below shows every automatic check Adobe performs and whether simplA11yPDF the same ground.

Check Adobe Acrobat simplA11yPDF
Document
Accessibility permission flag✓ Yes✓ Yes
Image-only PDF detection✓ Yes✓ Yes
Tagged PDF✓ Yes✓ Yes
Logical reading orderManual onlyManual only
Primary language✓ Yes✓ Yes
Document title✓ Yes✓ Yes
Bookmarks✓ Yes✓ Yes
Color contrastManual onlyManual only
Page Content
Tagged content✓ Yes✓ Yes
Tagged annotations✓ Yes~ Partial
Tab order✓ Yes✗ No
Character encoding✓ Yes✗ No
Tagged multimedia✓ Yes✗ No
Screen flicker✓ Yes✗ No
Scripts✓ Yes✗ No
Timed responses✓ Yes✗ No
Navigation links✓ Yes~ Partial
Forms
Tagged form fields✓ Yes~ Partial
Field descriptions✓ Yes✓ Yes
Alternate Text
Figures alternate text✓ Yes✓ Yes
Nested alternate text✓ Yes✓ Yes
Associated with content✓ Yes~ Partial
Hides annotation✓ Yes~ Partial
Other elements alternate text✓ Yes✗ No
Tables
Row structure (TR)✓ Yes✓ Yes
TH and TD cells✓ Yes✓ Yes
Table headers✓ Yes✓ Yes
Row/column regularity✓ Yes✓ Yes
Lists
List items (LI parentage)✓ Yes✓ Yes
Lbl and LBody structure✓ Yes✓ Yes
Headings
Appropriate nesting✓ Yes✓ Yes

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