A11yPDF: Bridging the Gap to Inclusive PDFs

Portable Document Format (PDF) files are platform-independent; thus, they are commonly used for sharing documents that need to be viewed or printed exactly as intended by the author. As with any other content format, they can present accessibility issues that hinder people with disabilities from fully perceiving or understanding the information displayed. There are many accessibility evaluation tools for PDF files that can help content creators to make them more accessible. Still, they have some limitations: lack of evaluation of certain elements of the document, cost-prohibitive paid licenses, and complex usage and reports. This paper presents A11yPDF, a free tool that can effectively evaluate the accessibility of PDFs and provide users with practical reports to help authors make their content more accessible. Compared to the currently available tools, A11yPDF is free, covers the evaluation of all elements considered important in the literature, and provides easy-to-read reports.