Annotations must appear in the tag tree

PDF/UA check ANNOT_TAGGED · Annotations · severity High · PDF/UA 8.9.2.1 General

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Why it matters#

Links and form fields need to be connected to the document structure so screen readers can announce them in context. Untagged annotations may be announced at random times or missed entirely.

What you will see#

Links, form fields or other annotations exist on the page but are not connected to the document structure.

How to fix#

Add an object reference (OBJR) for the annotation to the structure tree under the appropriate element: Link or Reference for link annotations, Form for widgets, Annot for markup annotations. If the annotation is not real content, mark it as an artifact instead.

Step-by-step guide#

1. Use the page numbers and preview images in the EQChecker report to locate each untagged annotation.
2. Open the Accessibility tags panel (View > Show/Hide > Side panels > Accessibility tags) and choose Options > Find > Unmarked annotations.
3. For each hit, click Tag Element and pick the semantically correct type: Link for link annotations, Form for widget (form field) annotations (8.9.2.1, 8.10.1). EQChecker raises this rule for links and widgets; untagged markup annotations are reported separately by MARKUP_ANNOT_TAGGED and belong in Annot elements.
4. For links, ensure the visible link text content item sits inside the same Link element as the OBJR so the text and the annotation are announced together.
5. Drag each new element as close as possible to its associated content - a child or sibling of the structure element enclosing that content, or a child of an Annot, Link or Reference element (8.9.3.2).
6. Alternative path: if the annotation is not real content, delete it. 8.9.2.2 also allows artifact status (kept out of the tree or enclosed in an Artifact element), but EQChecker passes an untagged annotation only when it detects its appearance flattened into artifact page content, and it skips Hidden, Invisible and NoView annotations entirely.

Verify: Re-run the EQChecker scan; ANNOT_TAGGED should report zero errors. Acrobat's accessibility check (All tools > Prepare for accessibility > Check for accessibility) should pass Annotations > Tagged annotations.

Note: Two exclusions are mandatory, not optional: Popup annotations shall not appear in the structure tree (8.9.2.4.9) and PrinterMark annotations shall be artifacts (8.9.2.4.14). Annotations with the Invisible flag, or NoView set without ToggleNoView, are required to be artifacts (8.9.2.2), and a zero-width, zero-height widget must also be an artifact (8.9.2.4.13).

Fixing it in your authoring tool#

WCAG success criteria#

1.3.1 Info and Relationships — Level A#

Structure and relationships conveyed visually (headings, lists, tables, labels, groups) must also be available programmatically.

Understanding 1.3.1

Standards#

This check contributes to the following standards:

PDF/UA WCAG A EN 301 549