Paul Rayius
VP of Strategic Accessibility | Customer Success & Training
⚠️ Proceed with caution, dear reader
This can be a loaded question! There have been more and more conversations, lately, about auto-tagging, automating PDF accessibility, the “Easy Button” (sorry, Staples), and so on.
The question everyone is asking: “Can PDF accessibility be 100% automated and 100% accurate?”
Maybe. Yes. Sometimes.
The honest answer depends entirely on your documents, your tools, and how you deploy them. Let’s break it all down.
❶ Can PDF Accessibility Be 100% Automated? The Honest Answer
When it comes to incredibly simple documents – those with just a few headings and paragraphs of text, for example – there are some auto-taggers out there, some using AI, some not, that might do a decent job tagging the document.
THE CATCH
For most of these tools, as soon as any level of complexity is introduced into the document, the success rate goes down significantly.
And, sometimes, that “complexity” isn’t even created by what appears on the page! If documents aren’t created with accessibility in mind – if the author used a table, behind the scenes, to help with formatting, for example – that could immediately lead to tagging issues.
❷ Why Most PDF Auto-taggers Fail on Complex Documents
Even simple tables and lists that do appear on the page can be tagged incorrectly. Sometimes what the author intended as numbered headings gets tagged as a list. And, when it comes to complex data tables, nested lists, or tables of contents – forget about it.
✘ Tables used for layout (not data) cause immediate tagging failures.
✘ Simple tables and lists are frequently tagged incorrectly
✘ Numbered headings are misidentified and tagged as lists
✘ Complex data tables and nested lists are handled poorly or not at all
✘ Tables of contents are routinely missed
VIDEO TUTORIAL
Want to see exactly how layout tables and data tables should be tagged correctly? Watch my video tutorial on tagging layout tables and data tables →
So, what can be automated?
That partly depends on the tools you’re using. As mentioned, many auto-taggers will leave a lot to be desired. However, PDFix has a lot of automation at a number of different “levels.”
❸ How PDFix Actions Speed Up PDF Remediation at Scale
It’s possible, in PDFix, to run automated Actions to dramatically speed up the remediation process.
While some may argue “this isn’t automation,” because someone has to run the action, the fact of the matter is that, because Actions can be run against the whole document, or even batches of documents at once, even though someone might have to “press play,” the end result is to reach the finish line much faster than otherwise possible.
For example, adding the Contents entry to link Annotations. Sure, there might be another tool out there that’ll add the Contents to all of the link Annotations, in one document, all at once. But being able to do this in hundreds of documents at once!? Boom!
And there are plenty of other, similar actions that can be run, too!
NOTE ON THE SDK
Someone only has to “press play” in the Desktop version of the software. If you’re running the SDK, actions can be run automatically – no human trigger required.
❹ PDFix Actions: Fix Multiple Issues Across Thousands of Documents at Once
So, you like being able to add the Contents entry to all of your link Annotations, in hundreds of documents, all at once? Well, it gets even better.
In PDFix, we have pre-built sets of actions to solve multiple issues at once.
And, just like a “single” Action, this pipeline of actions can be run against hundreds of documents at a time!
✓ Add Contents to the link Annotations
✓ Set the document title in the metadata and set the documents to display the title as opposed to the file name
✓ Automatically detect and set the document language
✓ Automatically tag untagged Annotations
✓ Assign tooltips to widget Annotation
✓ Delete tags that only contain spaces and mark those spaces as Artifacts
And are you ready for this?!
Let’s say that, as you go through your remediation work, you find you’re repeatedly having to run the same actions on many, or all, of your documents. If one of PDFix’s pre-built set of actions doesn’t give you everything you need, you can adjust one of ours – or you can actually create your own!
Furthermore, do you work with colleagues who would also benefit from the set of actions you created?
No problem! Export it and share it with them. Or create it in the Desktop version of PDFix and then run it in the SDK!
❺ PDFix Tagging Templates: Achieve 100% WCAG Accuracy, Every Time
But hold on. If your mind’s not already blown, get ready for this. Not only can you create set of actions to dramatically speed up the remediation process, but also, for documents that are “similar enough,” you can create tagging templates to ensure that, when you hit “AutoTag,” the tags really are correct, and in the correct reading order.
And this, frankly, is where most autotaggers fail. They use their little algorithms, or AI, or whatever, and hope to get it right. But most of the time, and especially when there’s any level of complexity in the document, these autotaggers fall short.
THE PDFIX DIFFERENCE
In PDFix, if you invest a little bit of time building a template then you can run that against hundreds, or thousands, of documents and achieve 100% accessibility – and usability – right out of the gate, with no additional work needed!
Furthermore, unlike some other “solutions” out there, we empower our clients to be able to create, and edit as needed, their own templates.
So, for example, if your organization goes and changes their style guide, you can easily update your tagging template to continue to get it right!
❻ Why PDF Autotagging Alone Is Not Enough for WCAG Compliance
The “other” auto-taggers that are out there are simply doing “that” – tagging. However, there’s a lot of “other” stuff that needs to be done, for accessibility. I mentioned some of these things earlier in this article – link Annotations’ Contents, tooltips for forms, and various metadata requirements.
But there’s a whole lot more that often needs to be done in a PDF for it to truly be accessible and usable by everyone. Fonts need to be embedded, characters need to be properly mapped to Unicode, role mapping of tags might need to be addressed, and so on. And PDFix does all of these things. It’s not “just another auto-tagger.” PDFix is your one-stop solution for automated, scalable PDF accessibility.
Because let’s face it.
Even with the DOJ extension to the ADA deadline, who’s got the time, or the resources, to fix one document at a time?!
Frequently Asked Questions
Can PDF accessibility be 100% automated?
For very simple documents with basic headings and paragraphs, some auto-taggers may do a decent job. However, as soon as any complexity is introduced – tables, nested lists, tables of contents, or documents that used invisible layout tables – success rates drop significantly. PDFix addresses this through auto-tagging templates, which let you define the exact structure of a repeating document type so that auto-tagging produces correct, fully compliant output every time.
What is PDF auto-tagging?
PDF auto-tagging is the process of automatically adding accessibility tags to a PDF document – tags that define structure (headings, paragraphs, lists, tables) so that screen readers and assistive technologies can read the document correctly. Most auto-taggers use algorithms or AI to detect content structure. Quality varies widely depending on the tool and the complexity of the document.
Why do most PDF auto-tagging tools fail on complex documents?
Most auto-taggers rely on generic algorithms that struggle with complexity. Common failure points include tables used for layout instead of data, nested lists, numbered headings misidentified as lists, complex data tables, and tables of contents. Additionally, most auto-taggers only handle tagging – they ignore other accessibility requirements such as embedded fonts, Unicode character mapping, annotation Contents, tooltip assignment, and metadata.
What are PDFix Actions?
PDFix Actions are automated operations that can be run against one document or batches of hundreds of documents at once. Examples include adding Contents entries to link annotations, setting the document title in metadata, automatically detecting and setting document language, tagging untagged annotations, and assigning tooltips to form widgets. In PDFix Desktop a user runs the action; in the PDFix SDK, actions run fully automatically without any human trigger.
What are PDFix Layout Templates and how they work?
PDFix layout templates let you define the exact tag structure for a specific document type. Once you build a template for a recurring document – an annual report, a form series, a policy document – you can run it against hundreds or thousands of similar documents and get correct, fully compliant tags and reading order automatically, with no additional manual work. Unlike other tools, PDFix lets you create, own, and edit your own templates, so if your organization’s style guide changes, you simply update the template.
How does PDFix handle batch PDF accessibility at scale?
PDFix handles scale through Actions – a single automated operations run across hundreds of documents, and layout templates – document-type-specific tag maps applied to thousands of similar files. The PDFix SDK removes the need for any human trigger – everything runs automatically in your IT infrastructure or cloud environment.
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