W3C Web Accessibility Initiative
Use this as the neutral front door to W3C accessibility standards and implementation material. It is broader than document production, but it establishes the vocabulary every downstream guide assumes.
Open resourceDocument accessibility: standards, guidance, and tools
A working map for people who create slides, PDFs, Office files, web documents, and accessible publications. Every resource below has a named owner and a note about what it is actually good for.
How to use this directory. Start with the standard that applies to your context, author accessibly in the source file, run automated checks, then complete the human checks those tools cannot decide: reading order, useful alternative text, meaningful link text, colour-independent meaning, and real assistive-technology use. This is an editorial reference, not legal advice or a conformance certificate. Links reviewed 3 August 2026.
Standards and law
Start here to identify the applicable requirement before choosing a checklist or tool.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2
The current W3C WCAG 2 overview and document set. Use its testable success criteria as a baseline, while checking which version a law or procurement contract actually incorporates.
Open resourceWAI-ARIA 1.2
Relevant when a document is delivered as an interactive web experience. It defines roles, states, and properties for assistive technology; it does not repair weak native HTML semantics.
Open resourceUS Access Board Revised 508 Standards
The authoritative US federal ICT requirements, including electronic documents. Read this for scope and incorporated requirements; use Section508.gov for authoring steps.
Open resourceSection508.gov accessible digital products
The most operational US federal starting point: separate, maintained guides for Word, PowerPoint, spreadsheets, PDFs, colour, media, and alternative text.
Open resourceADA Title II web and mobile rule
The Justice Department's plain-language guide to the 2024 Title II rule. It matters to state and local public entities and includes documents as web content; verify the current compliance dates rather than copying the original 2024 timetable.
Open resourceEN 301 549 v3.2.1
The freely available European accessibility requirements for ICT products and services. Use it for procurement and European public-sector context, not as a one-page author checklist.
Open resourceISO 14289-2:2024 (PDF/UA-2)
The ISO record for constructing accessible PDF 2.0 files. The abstract clarifies scope; implementation still requires the full standard plus PDF-specific guidance and human verification.
Open resourceAuthoring and implementation
Build accessibility into the source document; remediation after export is slower and less reliable.
Section508.gov PowerPoint authoring guides
A concrete PowerPoint 365 authoring and testing path for federal teams. Strong on file metadata, built-in layouts, reading order, alternative text, tables, links, colour, and the final accessibility check.
Open resourceMicrosoft accessible PowerPoint guidance
The best version-specific guide to PowerPoint's own accessibility controls. Useful while authoring because it connects each problem to the exact Office feature that detects or fixes it.
Open resourceWebAIM PowerPoint accessibility
A practical second opinion on layouts, reading order, alt text, tables, links, projection contrast, and PDF conversion. Its Office screenshots are older, so pair it with current Microsoft instructions.
Open resourceW3C accessible presentations and events
Extends beyond the file: advance materials, captions, spoken descriptions, readable projection, venue and remote-platform needs. Use it when the presentation event itself must be inclusive.
Open resourcePDF Association accessible PDF hub
The strongest vendor-neutral map of PDF/UA specifications, tagged-PDF practices, techniques, and working-group material. It is technical by design and best used after source-document authoring guidance.
Open resourcePDF/UA Matterhorn Protocol
Enumerates the ways a PDF/UA-1 file can fail and separates machine-checkable from human checkpoints. Use it to understand why a green automated report is not the end of an audit.
Open resourceMDN accessibility guides
Concise implementation guidance for HTML documents and web applications, especially semantics, keyboard behavior, ARIA, colour and luminance. It complements rather than replaces the W3C normative text.
Open resourceAbilityNet accessible-document factsheets
Plain-language document advice with useful accessibility and assistive-technology context. Best for content authors who need a short entry point before moving to formal standards.
Open resourceDAISY Accessible Publishing Knowledge Base
The most useful production reference here for EPUB and reflowable publications: semantic structure, navigation, metadata, text-to-speech, scripting, and EPUB Accessibility conformance.
Open resourceDigital.gov accessibility introduction
A concise operational reminder that accessibility belongs throughout design, content creation, testing, and maintenance — and that automated testing cannot cover the whole experience.
Open resourceTesting tools
Automated findings are inputs to a human audit, never a substitute for one.
veraPDF validation
Formal machine validation for PDF/A and PDF/UA profiles, including PDF/UA-1 and PDF/UA-2. Excellent for specification-level failures; its own documentation is explicit that PDF/UA human checks remain outside the engine.
Open resourcePAC — PDF Accessibility Checker
A free PDF/UA and WCAG checker with structure and screen-reader previews. Use the visual and manual workflow as well as the automated result; PAC 2026 now includes optional AI-assisted checks.
Open resourceWAVE
Overlays detectable WCAG issues and structural information on a rendered web document, which makes it unusually good for human review. A clean WAVE report is evidence of tested rules, not proof that a page is accessible.
Open resourceDeque axe
A widely integrated rules engine and commercial testing suite for web and mobile. Labelled vendor-authored because the product page makes coverage claims; pair automation with manual assistive-technology testing.
Open resourceVispero Colour Contrast Analyser
The maintained successor URL for TPGi's CCA. Its eyedropper and WCAG 2.2 ratios are valuable across PowerPoint, PDF, design files, and web content; it also provides multiple vision-deficiency previews.
Open resourceRelated Pages