Skip to main content

Accessible PDFs: What Teams Get Wrong Most Often | Eliquo

Accessible PDFs: What Teams Get Wrong Most Often
News

Accessible PDFs: What Teams Get Wrong Most Often

By Craig Boassaly – Founder, Eliquo Training

The Short Answer

Teams most often get PDF accessibility wrong because they treat accessibility as a final check instead of a design and authoring process. Common mistakes include improper tagging, incorrect reading order, inaccessible tables and forms, and relying on automated fixes instead of training content creators.

Why PDF Accessibility Is Still a Major Problem

PDFs remain one of the most common and most problematic digital formats used by organizations. They are widely used for:

  • Reports and publications
  • Forms and applications
  • Policies and public notices
  • Marketing and communications

Yet PDFs are also one of the leading sources of accessibility complaints, especially in government and regulated industries.

The reason isn’t lack of intent.
It’s lack of training at the point of creation.

The Most Common PDF Accessibility Mistakes

1. PDFs Are Created Visually, Not Structurally

Many teams design PDFs to look correct without considering how assistive technologies interpret them.

Common issues include:

  • Text that appears in the right place visually but has no logical structure
  • Headings styled visually instead of tagged correctly
  • Content built from images instead of real text

Screen readers rely on structure and not appearance. When structure is missing, content becomes unusable.

2. Incorrect or Missing Tags

PDF tags provide the underlying structure that assistive technologies depend on.

Teams often:

  • Forget to tag PDFs entirely
  • Apply incorrect tag types
  • Rely on automatic tagging without review

Automatic tagging can help, but it cannot replace human understanding of content structure.

3. Reading Order Is Broken

Reading order determines how content is presented to screen reader users.

Common reading order problems include:

  • Content read out of sequence
  • Sidebars or callouts read in the wrong place
  • Decorative elements interrupt meaningful content

These issues often go unnoticed because the PDF looks correct visually.

4. Tables Are Built for Layout, Not Accessibility

Tables are frequently used to control layout rather than present data.

This leads to:

  • Missing table headers
  • Incorrect header associations
  • Complex table structures that screen readers can’t interpret

Accessible tables require intentional design and proper tagging, not visual shortcuts.

5. Forms Are Inaccessible or Unusable

PDF forms are a frequent source of accessibility failures.

Common problems include:

  • Missing or unclear form field labels
  • Incorrect tab order
  • Instructions that rely only on visual cues
  • Validation errors that are not announced to screen readers

Without proper training, form accessibility is often overlooked until complaints arise.

6. Teams Rely on Automated Checkers Alone

Automated accessibility checkers are useful—but limited.

They cannot reliably detect:

  • Meaningful reading order
  • Logical content flow
  • Whether alternative text is appropriate
  • Whether instructions make sense without vision

Passing an automated check does not mean a PDF is accessible.

Why These Mistakes Keep Repeating

Most PDF accessibility issues are not technical failures. They are training failures.

Organizations often:

  • Train compliance or IT teams instead of content creators
  • Expect designers or staff to “fix accessibility later”
  • Treat PDFs as finished artifacts instead of structured documents

As a result, the same issues appear again and again.

How Teams Can Get PDF Accessibility Right

1. Train Content Creators, Not Just Reviewers

The people creating PDFs: designers, communications staff, document authors all must understand accessibility fundamentals.

Accessibility must be part of:

  • Document planning
  • Design decisions
  • Authoring workflows

2. Teach Accessibility Inside Real Tools

Effective PDF accessibility training shows:

  • How structure is created in source documents
  • How tags work and why they matter
  • How to check and correct reading order
  • How to create accessible tables and forms

Training must reflect the tools teams actually use.

3. Treat Accessibility as a Creation Skill

Accessible PDFs are not produced by accident.

They are the result of:

  • Intentional structure
  • Consistent workflows
  • Informed decision-making

When teams are trained properly, accessibility becomes part of quality—not an afterthought.

Why This Matters for Organizations

Organizations that rely solely on remediation:

  • Spend more time fixing than creating
  • Face recurring accessibility findings
  • Carry ongoing compliance risk

Organizations that train their teams:

  • Prevent accessibility issues upstream
  • Reduce long-term remediation costs
  • Produce more consistent, usable documents
  • Scale accessibility across departments

Get PDF Productive Quickly with our Acrobat Training Bundle

Eliquo’s five-course eLearning bundle is designed to help you work faster with Acrobat’s desktop and mobile interface, create professional fillable PDF forms, leverage Acrobat’s built-in AI productivity features, and confidently produce WCAG 2.2 accessible PDFs and accessible PDF forms in accordance with the Accessibility Acts around the world (WCAG, ADA, ACA, EAA, AODA and others).

Price: $99 (single license)

Bundle available until March 31st

Buy the Acrobat Bundle — $99

About the Author

Craig Boassaly is the Founder and President of Eliquo Training & Development and a digital accessibility educator who has been teaching accessible document creation and WCAG best practices since 2003. He specializes in training content creators to build accessible PDFs and documents using real-world workflows.