If you work with digital documents, you have probably heard the term PDF/UA. It stands for PDF/Universal Accessibility and is the international standard published as ISO 14289. Its purpose is simple: to make PDF files accessible to people who use assistive technologies such as screen readers, magnifiers, Braille displays, and switch devices.
PDF/UA is not a separate file format. It is a set of rules that tells authors and software developers how to create PDFs so that everyone can read and navigate them. A PDF/UA-conformant document keeps its semantic structure intact, which means headings, lists, tables, links, and form fields are not just visual objects but meaningful pieces of information.
What PDF/UA Covers
The standard addresses many parts of a PDF file. Understanding these areas helps you see why some documents fail accessibility checks while others pass.
Tagged content. PDF/UA requires that content be tagged. Tags describe the role of each element, such as a paragraph, heading, figure, or table cell. Without tags, a screen reader sees only a stream of text and cannot tell where a section begins or ends.
Logical reading order. A document must be readable from top to bottom and left to right in a logical sequence. Multi-column layouts, sidebars, and floating text boxes can confuse assistive technology if the reading order is wrong.
Alternative text. Images, charts, and diagrams need concise text descriptions. Decorative images should be marked as artifacts so screen readers skip them.
Fonts and characters. Text must be embedded or mapped correctly. If a PDF contains only images of text, screen readers cannot extract any words.
Navigation and links. Bookmarks, a table of contents, and clickable links make long documents easier to explore. PDF/UA also expects link text to describe its destination rather than saying "click here."
Forms. Interactive form fields need labels, tooltips, and a logical tab order. Users should be able to complete and submit forms without a mouse.
Metadata. The document should declare its title, language, and author. This metadata helps software identify the document and present it correctly.
How PDF/UA Relates to WCAG
WCAG, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, is the best-known standard for web accessibility. PDF/UA and WCAG share the same goal but target different technologies. WCAG focuses on HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, while PDF/UA focuses on the PDF format.
WCAG 2.1 and WCAG 2.2 are organized around four principles: content must be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. PDF/UA maps closely to these ideas. For example, a tagged PDF satisfies the need for perceivable structure, and keyboard-accessible forms satisfy the operable principle.
In many regions, public-sector bodies must meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA. Because PDFs are often treated as web content, they must also be accessible. PDF/UA is widely accepted as the way to achieve PDF accessibility in a WCAG-aligned manner.
How to Check PDF/UA Conformance
Checking a PDF for accessibility usually involves two steps: automated scanning and manual review.
Start with an automated checker. These tools quickly find missing tags, empty alternative text, incorrect reading order, and missing metadata. They save time but cannot catch every issue.
After the automated scan, do a manual review. Open the document with a screen reader such as NVDA or JAWS. Listen to how the content flows, test links, try to complete forms with the keyboard, and verify that images are described accurately.
Some checks require human judgment. A tool can tell you whether an image has alt text, but it cannot tell you whether the description is useful.
Tools for Creating and Validating PDF/UA
Several tools can help you produce accessible PDFs. Microsoft Word and Adobe InDesign both support tagged PDF export when you use styles and alt text consistently. LibreOffice also provides accessibility options during PDF export.
For validation, Adobe Acrobat Pro includes an accessibility checker and a Make Accessible wizard. axesWord and axesPDF offer dedicated PDF/UA workflows. VeraPDF is a free, open-source validator that tests against ISO 14289 and reports conformance levels. PAC (PDF Accessibility Checker) is a popular Windows tool that combines automated checks with a screen-reader preview.
For developers, libraries such as iText and PDFBox can create tagged PDFs programmatically. These are useful when documents are generated from templates or databases.
Conclusion
PDF/UA gives organizations a clear path to accessible documents. By combining proper authoring practices with automated and manual testing, you can create PDFs that work for all readers. Whether you publish reports, forms, manuals, or invoices, following ISO 14289 helps you meet legal requirements, improve user experience, and show that accessibility matters to your organization.