Accessible PDF from LaTeX

Making LaTeX documents produce tagged, screen-reader-friendly PDFs – relevant for ADA Title II compliance (deadline April 2026).

Most LaTeX documents (pdflatex + standard classes) produce untagged PDFs with no structure metadata, invisible to screen readers. The fix is minimal: add a few lines to your preamble, switch to LuaLaTeX, and your existing layout is preserved.

Validated with PDFix PDF/UA validator. Also available as a Claude Code skill: /accessible-pdf in Claude Scholar.

The fix (5 changes)#

1. Add \DocumentMetadata before \documentclass#

This must be the very first thing in your .tex file, before \documentclass.

\DocumentMetadata{
  lang = en,
  pdfstandard = a-2b,
  pdfstandard = ua-1,
  pdfversion = 2.0,
  testphase = {phase-II},
}
\documentclass[10pt]{article}  % your existing documentclass

• pdfstandard = a-2b – A-2b archival compliance
• pdfstandard = ua-1 – UA-1 universal accessibility compliance
• testphase = {phase-II} – activates automatic tagging of headings, lists, and other structures

2. Swap font packages (LuaLaTeX requires OpenType fonts)#

LuaLaTeX uses OpenType fonts via fontspec instead of the old Type1 font system.

% REMOVE these:
%   \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
%   \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
%   \usepackage[sc]{mathpazo}

% ADD these:
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{TeX Gyre Pagella}    % Palatino equivalent
\setmonofont{Inconsolatazi4-Regular.otf}[BoldFont=Inconsolatazi4-Bold.otf]  % optional, for \texttt

Common font substitutions:

• mathpazo / Palatino -> TeX Gyre Pagella
• Times / mathptmx -> TeX Gyre Termes
• Computer Modern -> Latin Modern (already default in LuaLaTeX)
• Helvetica / helvet -> TeX Gyre Heros

3. Add metadata to \hypersetup#

If you already load hyperref, add these keys:

\hypersetup{
  pdftitle={Your Document Title},
  pdfauthor={Your Name},
  pdfsubject={Description of the document},
  pdflang={en},
  pdfdisplaydoctitle=true,    % required for PDF/UA
  % ... your existing options (colorlinks, etc.)
}

pdfdisplaydoctitle=true is required by PDF/UA – it tells PDF viewers to show the document title in the title bar instead of the filename.

4. Replace symbol fonts that lack Unicode mappings (if applicable)#

Some packages (e.g., marvosym) produce glyphs that can’t be mapped to Unicode, which fails UA validation. Replace them with fontawesome5:

% REMOVE:
%   \usepackage{marvosym}   % \Letter, \Mundus lack Unicode mapping

% ADD:
\usepackage{fontawesome5}   % \faEnvelope, \faGlobe, \faOrcid, etc.

Icon examples:

• \faEnvelope – envelope (email)
• \faGlobe – globe (website)
• \faOrcid – ORCID logo
• \faGithub – GitHub logo
• \faPhone – phone

5. Build with LuaLaTeX#

latexmk -lualatex mydocument

Or in a Makefile:

mydocument.pdf: mydocument.tex
    latexmk -lualatex mydocument

How to verify#

• PDFix Validate PDF/UA – web-based, upload and get a report. Passes with the recipe above.
• PAC (PDF Accessibility Checker) – desktop tool, considered the gold standard. Not yet tested with this recipe.
• axesCheck – web-based PDF/UA and WCAG checker. Does not pass yet with this recipe; may require additional fixes.
• macOS VoiceOver (Cmd+F5) – open PDF in Preview, navigate with VoiceOver
• pdfinfo mydocument.pdf – quick check that Tagged says “yes” (requires poppler: brew install poppler)

Limitations#

• Images still need alt text (\tagstructbegin{tag=Figure,alt-text={description}} or manual tagging)
• Complex table layouts may not tag perfectly
• Custom environments using low-level TeX may need adjustment
• phase-III tagging (full paragraph tagging) may conflict with some packages – phase-II is the safe choice

The result is a A-2b + UA-1 compliant document with structure tags (H1, P, L, LI) for screen reader navigation.

Requirements#

• TeX Live 2025 (or later) – the tagging framework is relatively new
• LuaLaTeX (included in standard TeX Live)
• poppler for pdfinfo CLI verification (brew install poppler on macOS)

Tested with#

• article, report, book classes – works
• Custom \marginpar sidebar section layouts – works, layout preserved
• biblatex with biber – works
• fancyhdr – works
• paralist (compactitem) – works
• orcidlink – works
• fontawesome5 – works
• Standard and custom list environments – works