Check a PDF for accessibility — on your device
Tags, alt text, language, title, headings and a text layer on every page, scored and explained.
Free: 3 jobs per UTC day, 25 MB per file. PDF exports include a visible Made with Bindery watermark. Pro exports clean PDFs.
Prefer the full studio? Open PDF accessibility check in the app →
Bindery reads the structure tree, MarkInfo, language, title, viewer preferences, figures and their alternative text, form-field descriptions, links, bookmarks and table headers, and checks that every page carries a text layer. Each finding is explained in plain language with what to do about it, and the weighted score tells you at a glance whether a screen reader will cope.
It is a structural check, not a certificate: colour contrast, reading-order correctness and whether the alt text is actually meaningful still need a person. Bindery runs entirely in your browser — your file is never uploaded, so there is nothing to delete from a server afterwards.
How it works
- Drop the PDF and open Accessibility check
- The structure is read on your device in a second or two
- Fix what the report lists — OCR for scans, metadata for title and language, re-export for tagging
What makes a PDF accessible
A screen reader needs structure a sighted reader infers: which text is a heading, in what order paragraphs are read, what an image shows, what a form field asks for, where a table’s headers are, and what language the document is in. That structure lives in the PDF’s tag tree and metadata. Bindery reads the structure tree, MarkInfo, language, title, viewer preferences, figures and their alternative text, form-field descriptions, links, bookmarks and table headers, checks that every page carries a text layer, and scores the result with each finding explained in plain language along with what to do about it.
What the check can and cannot tell you
These are the machine-testable parts of PDF/UA and WCAG for documents. A file can pass all of them and still be hard to use: colour contrast, whether the reading order actually makes sense, and whether alt text is meaningful need a person. And the fixes are split. Bindery can add a title and language with Remove metadata and a text layer with OCR; real tagging — headings, reading order, table structure — must come from the authoring tool’s tagged export (Word, InDesign, LibreOffice), and the report says so plainly.
Checking in the browser versus uploading
| Accessibility check | Bindery | Upload-based tools |
|---|---|---|
| Where the file is processed | In your browser tab, on your device | Uploaded to the service’s servers |
| The file | Read-only; nothing changed, nothing sent | Uploaded for analysis |
| Findings | Explained, with the fix for each | Varies |
| What exists afterwards | The original and the new file, both on your device | A server copy until the retention window ends |
| Works offline | Yes, once the app has loaded | No |
Who needs this
- Public-sector bodies and universities with accessibility obligations.
- Publishers and agencies delivering documents to clients who require PDF/UA.
- Anyone preparing a document for PDF/A-2a archiving, which requires tags.
- Education teams: see Bindery for education.
Questions people ask
Can Bindery make an untagged PDF accessible?
Partly. It can add a title, a language and a text layer (OCR); real tagging — headings, reading order, table structure — has to come from the authoring tool’s tagged export, which the report says plainly.
Which standards does this follow?
The checks mirror the machine-testable parts of PDF/UA and WCAG 2.x for documents: structure tags, language, title, alternative text, headings, form descriptions, link text and table headers.
Is the file changed or uploaded?
Neither. The check is read-only and runs entirely in your browser.
My scanned PDF scores badly. What first?
Run OCR so every page has a text layer, then set a title and language. Those three fixes cover the findings a scan can fix; heading and table structure require re-authoring.
Is the score a certification?
No. It is a structural check with each finding explained. Formal conformance claims need a full PDF/UA validator and a human review of contrast, reading order and alt text.
Does the check change my file?
No. It is read-only and runs entirely in your browser.