The document must be a tagged PDF

PDF/UA check DOC_TAGS · Document level · severity Critical · PDF/UA 8.2.2 Real content

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Why it matters#

Tags provide a hidden structure that tells screen readers how to read your document. Without tags, assistive technology cannot understand the document's organization and will read content in the wrong order or miss important information entirely.

What you will see#

The PDF has no tag structure at all — it is a flat page of marks with no machine-readable reading order.

How to fix#

Tag the document: create a structure tree (StructTreeRoot) enclosing all real content in structure elements, and set /Marked true in the MarkInfo dictionary. In Acrobat: run Autotag Document, then review the resulting tags for accuracy.

Step-by-step guide#

1. Fastest path: run the document through EqualWeb's remediation software, which builds the structure tree and tags the real content automatically.
2. Alternatively, tag in Acrobat Pro: run All tools > Prepare for accessibility > Automatically tag PDF (the classic Autotag Document command). This builds a structure tree (StructTreeRoot) and sets /Marked true in the MarkInfo dictionary.
3. For scanned documents, run OCR first (All tools > Scan & OCR > Recognize text) - image-only pages have no text to tag.
4. If the source document is available, re-export with tagging enabled (Word: check 'Document structure tags for accessibility' when saving as PDF; InDesign: Create Tagged PDF) so future exports stay tagged.
5. Whichever path produced the tags, open the Accessibility tags panel (View > Show/Hide > Side panels > Accessibility tags) and review them: correct misidentified headings, lists, tables and figures.
6. Use All tools > Prepare for accessibility > Fix reading order (the Reading Order tool) to re-tag content that was missed or misclassified, and mark decorative content as artifact (Background/Artifact).

Verify: Re-run the EQChecker scan; DOC_TAGS passes once a structure tree with at least one child element exists. Acrobat's accessibility check should pass the Tagged PDF rule.

Note: PDF/UA-2 8.2.2 requires all real content to be enclosed in semantically appropriate structure elements, so tagging alone is not the end state - related rules (logical order, headings, tables, figures) validate the quality of the tree this rule only requires to exist.

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

References#

• PDF/UA (ISO 14289) overview — PDF Association
• Adobe — Create and verify accessible PDFs