Accessibility is the entire purpose of this site, so we hold ourselves to the standard we check other people's documents against. This statement describes how accessible pdfchecks.com is, honestly — including what is not perfect yet.
Conformance target
We aim for WCAG 2.1 Level AA across the website. The site was built with accessibility as a design constraint from the first commit, not audited into shape afterwards.
What we do
- Semantic HTML with proper landmarks, headings and lists on every page.
- Full keyboard operability — including the file-upload area, which is a real, focusable control, not a click-only target.
- Visible focus indicators throughout.
- Colour contrast at or above AA on text and interactive elements.
- Live status announcements (
aria-live) while a check is running, so screen reader users hear progress rather than silence. - Reduced-motion preferences respected.
- No cookies, no tracking scripts, no overlays or "accessibility widgets".
- Plain-language content in English and German — the language of each page is declared, and every page links its translation.
Known limitations
- Downloadable PDF reports are tagged, but we do not yet claim full PDF/UA conformance. Our generated PDF reports carry a real tag structure — headings, articles and paragraphs — and score 97/100 when run through this very service. One known gap remains: they do not yet contain an XMP metadata packet, which PDF/UA requires. We will not describe them as PDF/UA-conformant until that is fixed and verified. The HTML report contains identical content and is served by default.
- Payment pages are provided by Stripe. If you buy a report, the checkout runs on Stripe's site, whose accessibility we don't control.
How this was assessed
Self-evaluation: keyboard-only walkthroughs, automated checks and contrast verification. We have not yet commissioned an external audit or completed structured screen reader test passes — when we do, this statement will say so.
Feedback
If you hit an accessibility barrier anywhere on this site, please tell us at lukeramsdale01@gmail.com — we treat accessibility bugs as defects, not feature requests, and aim to respond within two working days.