PDF/UA

PDF/UA (Universal Accessibility), standardized as ISO 14289, is the version of PDF designed to work for everyone, including people who rely on screen readers, braille displays, or keyboard navigation. UA stands for universal accessibility, and the standard spells out what a truly accessible PDF needs.

The core requirement is a proper tag tree: every heading, paragraph, list, table, and image is marked up so assistive technology knows what it is and reads it in the right order. Images need alternative text, the reading order has to be logical, and the document language must be declared. A scanned page that is just a picture of text fails PDF/UA until its structure is added.

If you publish PDFs for the public, especially in education, government, or any regulated sector, PDF/UA is increasingly a legal expectation, not a nice-to-have. Getting the text and structure right is the foundation for compliance.