How to fix PDF accessibility issues in the editor

This guide assumes you’ve already uploaded a PDF and our tool has proposed initial tags and alt text. If you haven’t done that yet, see Remediate your first PDF. The PDF tool is a Beta feature available on paid plans — see Plans and credit costs.

The editor changes only the accessibility layer — the invisible structure and metadata that assistive technology reads. It never changes how the page looks. For why this distinction matters, see What PDF accessibility remediation means.

Open the block-by-block editor

1. Open your PDF project.
2. Go to the editor view. The document is broken into blocks — paragraphs, headings, images, tables, lists, and captions — that you can select individually.

Edit alt text

1. Select an image block.
2. Review the AI-proposed alt text.
3. If it’s inaccurate or missing context, edit the text directly.
4. If the image is purely decorative, mark it as decorative instead of writing alt text for it — decorative images are skipped by assistive technology rather than announced.

Fix headings

1. Select a text block that should be a heading, or one that’s been mistagged.
2. Set its heading level so the document’s structure matches its intended outline. Skipping levels (for example jumping from Heading 1 to Heading 3) makes navigation harder for screen reader users, so keep levels sequential where possible.

Fix tables

1. Select a table block.
2. Confirm or correct which cells are header cells versus data cells, and check that rows and columns read in a sensible order.
3. If a table was split incorrectly or content was misgrouped, adjust the block boundaries so each table reads as one coherent structure.

Fix lists

1. Select list content.
2. Confirm it’s tagged as a list (not plain paragraphs), and that each item is a separate list entry.

Fix captions

1. Select a caption block near a figure or table.
2. Confirm it’s associated with the correct image or table, and edit its text if needed.

Fix reading order

1. If content is announced out of the order a sighted reader would follow it, use the reading-order control to reorder blocks.
2. Reordering only changes the order assistive technology encounters content — it doesn’t move anything visually on the page.

Read the audit report

1. Open the audit report for your project.
2. It shows a PDF/UA-1 pass or fail result for the document, plus specific findings.
3. Each finding includes a plain-language hint explaining what’s wrong and, where relevant, which block it affects — use this to jump straight to the block that needs fixing rather than reviewing every block manually.

If your document keeps failing the same check after edits, try publishing and then re-checking the audit report. See Republish a PDF for the next step.