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PDF/UA Compliance Checker

Check the PDF/UA requirements a program can actually verify.

Processed locally in your browser. Your file is not uploaded to any server. How this works

  1. 01Add your file
  2. 02PDF/UA Compliance Checker
  3. 03Download

Runs in your browser · nothing uploaded

About PDF/UA compliance checker

PDF/UA — ISO 14289 — is the standard defining what an accessible PDF must contain. It is important to be honest about how much of it software can check. Some requirements are entirely mechanical: a conforming file declares a PDF/UA identifier in its XMP metadata, must be tagged, must declare a language, must mark decorative content as artifacts, must give figures alternative descriptions, must not rely on colour alone where that can be detected. This tool checks those. Many other requirements are not mechanical at all. Whether a heading’s level reflects the document’s real organisation, whether alt text is meaningful, whether a table’s header cells are correctly associated with their data, whether reading order makes sense to a human — these need a person. That gap matters in one specific, frequently exploited way: a file can carry the PDF/UA identifier, claiming conformance, while failing requirements no checker can test. The identifier is a claim made by the producer, not a verified fact, and this tool reports it as such.

How to PDF/UA compliance checker

  1. 01

    Open the PDF

    Drop in the document you need to assess against PDF/UA.

  2. 02

    Check the identifier claim

    See whether the file declares PDF/UA conformance in its XMP metadata — a claim, not proof.

  3. 03

    Work through the mechanical findings

    Tagging, alt text, language, artifacts and structure requirements are reported with page references.

  4. 04

    Review the manual list

    Read the requirements needing human evaluation and assess them yourself, or engage an accessibility specialist.

What this tool does

  • Checks the mechanically verifiable PDF/UA requirements in one pass
  • Reports whether the file claims the PDF/UA identifier, and treats that as a claim rather than proof
  • Explicitly lists the requirements that need human evaluation, so nothing is silently assumed to pass
  • Page-level references on every finding for efficient remediation
  • Runs locally, so documents under legal or procurement review need not be uploaded

Limitations worth knowing

Every PDF tool has constraints. Stating them plainly is more useful than discovering them halfway through your work.

  • This is not a certified PDF/UA validator and does not issue a conformance statement. It reports machine-verifiable indicators only.
  • Many PDF/UA requirements cannot be automated at all — meaningful alt text, correct heading semantics, correct table header association, sensible reading order. Human judgement is mandatory for conformance.
  • A file claiming the PDF/UA identifier may still fail the standard, since the identifier is asserted by the producer and not verified by anything.
  • Where a formal conformance statement is required for legal or procurement purposes, a qualified accessibility audit is needed, not this or any other automated tool.

How your file is handled

This tool runs entirely inside this browser tab. When you choose a file, your browser reads it from your own disk and hands the bytes to JavaScript running on this page — no network request carries your document anywhere. You can confirm that yourself: open your browser’s developer tools, switch to the Network panel, and run the tool. You will see no upload.

Nothing is stored after the fact. Closing or reloading this tab discards the file, the result and everything derived from them, because none of it ever left your machine. Read how local processing works.

Questions about PDF/UA compliance checker

Can this certify my PDF as PDF/UA compliant?

No. Nothing automated can. The standard contains requirements that explicitly depend on human judgement, such as whether alt text is meaningful and whether heading levels reflect real structure. We check what is mechanically verifiable and state clearly what is not.

My file declares the PDF/UA identifier. Does that mean it conforms?

Not necessarily. The identifier is a claim written into the metadata by whatever produced the file. It is not verified by any mechanism, and files carrying it routinely fail requirements that no checker can test.

What is the difference between PDF/UA and WCAG?

WCAG is technology-neutral guidance for digital content generally; PDF/UA is the ISO standard specifying how those goals are met specifically in PDF, in terms of tags, structure and metadata. Meeting PDF/UA is how a PDF satisfies the relevant WCAG criteria.

I need a compliance statement for a procurement requirement. What should I do?

Engage a qualified accessibility auditor. Automated checks are a useful first pass that catches mechanical failures cheaply, but a formal statement rests on human evaluation that no tool can substitute for.

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