Accessible PDFs and Documents
PDFs and downloadable documents are often the most overlooked part of an otherwise accessible website. A scanned or unstructured PDF is just a picture of text — screen readers cannot interpret it at all.
If you publish brochures, reports, forms or policies, those files need the same care as your web pages, or they become a barrier all of their own.
What Makes a Document Accessible
An accessible document carries structure and meaning, not just appearance, so assistive technology can read it properly.
- Real, selectable text rather than scanned images.
- Tagged headings, lists and reading order.
- Alt text on any meaningful images.
- A clear document title and language setting.
Consider HTML Instead
Where possible, an HTML web page is more accessible, easier to update and better for search than a PDF. We often recommend publishing content as a page and reserving PDFs for documents people genuinely need to print.
Frequently Asked Questions
We have hundreds of old PDFs — must we fix them all?
Not necessarily at once. We help you prioritise the documents people actually use, fix or replace those first, and retire any that are no longer needed.
If you need a hand with any of this, your Progressive Robot delivery team is ready to help. Raise a ticket from the Support area of your client portal or speak to your account manager and we will guide you through the next steps.