The One Remediation Tool You Should Have...

About this episode

The episode discusses the best tools for making PDFs accessible and emphasizes that the right tool depends on the specific context and starting point.

What's the best tool for making PDFs accessible? It's the question we get constantly, and the honest answer might surprise you. There isn't one. In this episode of Chax Chat, Chad and Dax break down how the "best" accessibility tool depends entirely on your starting point. Are you working in Word, InDesign, PowerPoint, Google Docs, or Canva? Do you have a tagged PDF, an untagged PDF, or a scanned document? Each scenario changes the strategy. We discuss why "born accessible" is always better than heavy remediation, when Adobe's auto-tagging can actually help, why tools like MadeToTag and Access Word continue to be game changers, and how platforms like CommonLook, PDFix, PREP, and Grackle fit into the workflow. We also talk about handling scanned PDFs, the realities of screen reader testing, and why bookmarks aren't the navigation solution many people think they are. If you've ever felt overwhelmed trying to choose the right accessibility tool, this episode will help you stop chasing a magic solution and start making smarter decisions based on context. Every other week, we unravel accessibility so you can build more inclusive, compliant, and practical documents. Screen Readers NVDA…

People in this episode

Hosts: Dax Castro, Chad Chelius

Topics covered

• PDF accessibility
• remediation tools
• document compliance
• screen reader testing
• inclusive design
• accessibility strategies

Keywords

• accessibility tools
• PDF remediation
• born accessible
• screen readers
• document accessibility
• tagged PDF
• scanned documents

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Adobe, CommonLook, WebAIM

Products: MadeToTag, Access Word, PDFix, PREP, Grackle, NVDA, JAWS, Apple Voice Over, TPGi Color Contrast Analyzer

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