Upload your document and get a repaired one back. We rebuild the structure a screen reader needs, set the language and the title, fix text too faint to read, and use AI to draft descriptions of your pictures for you to approve. Then we check the result, and you only pay if it actually improved.
Not sure yet? Watch a 35-second repair Free to run and free to see the result. $5 per document for the repaired files - and nothing at all for a document whose score does not move. No sign-up. Your document is held in memory and never saved to disk.
See a real repair #
One PDF from 12 to 100 in 35 seconds, with every score measured on the repaired file.
Read the transcript, with what is on screen #
- Your PDF fails accessibility. Screen readers can't read it. Let's fix that. On screen: The AccessLumens repair page, with a box to drop a PDF into.
- Drop it in. We check it against WCAG 2.2 and repair it automatically. On screen: A progress screen: "Repairing your document", rebuilding the document, then comparing every page against the original.
- 12 to 89. Measured on the fixed file, not guessed. On screen: The result: before 12, after 89, plus 77. Beside it, "30 minutes of hand work in Acrobat", the time the repairs would have taken by hand.
- Low-contrast text, fixed. See the before and after. Undo anytime. On screen: "Colours we fixed": 11 pieces of faint text, with before and after previews of pages 1 and 2. A grey text colour goes from 3.04:1 to 4.88:1 contrast on white, and a button reads "Undo the colour changes, keep my colours".
- AI drafts your image descriptions. You approve them. We re-check everything. On screen: Each picture with three choices: describe it, it's decoration, or leave it alone. A bar chart gets the draft "The bar graph displays four colored bars representing different values, with the purple bar being the tallest." Then the document is re-checked, and the score reaches 100.
- $5 to download. If the score doesn't move, you pay nothing. On screen: "Your fixed PDF is ready", with a Download fixed PDF button.
- AccessLumens. Find it. Fix it. Prove it. On screen: A closing card: "Free to run. Pay only if it improves." and accesslumens.com/pdf-remediation.
What we fix #
- The structure a screen reader followsThe tag tree most inaccessible PDFs are missing entirely. The biggest single fix.
- The language of the textWorked out from the text, so a screen reader uses the right voice.
- A real title, not the file nameIt announces as "2026 Budget", not "final_v3_FINAL.docx".
- Descriptions for your picturesDrafted with AI for you to check, or mark as decoration. Nothing is written in until you apply.
- The order the Tab key moves inKeyboard users move through the page the way it reads.
- Fonts that were never embeddedSo it reads the same on a machine without your fonts.
- Text too faint to readDarkened only as far as it needs to pass, hue kept. See every change, set your own, or undo.
What we flag for you #
Some fixes depend on what your document means, and a guess does more harm than none. So we find them and show you where.
- Reading order. We show where it looks wrong. Rearranging meaning is your call.
- Tables and lists. We name the broken ones, page by page. Which cells are headers is yours to decide.
- Text on busy backgrounds. Where no text colour can pass, we name the background and the contrast it needs.
- Bookmarks. We will not invent a contents list your document never had.
All of it is on your results page and in your report.
How we prove it worked #
We check the document again from scratch
The repaired file goes through exactly the same check your original did, so the before and after are the same measurement of the same thing.
We compare how it looks, page by page
An automatic repair can improve every technical measure while visibly wrecking the page. If the repaired document does not look like yours, we throw it away and keep your original.
You see the real number before you pay
Not an estimate. If the score did not move, we say so and there is nothing to pay for.
Common questions #
What is PDF remediation? #
Repairing a PDF so assistive technology can read it: giving it the underlying structure a screen reader follows, setting the document language and title, describing pictures, fixing text too faint to read, and making the keyboard move through it in a sensible order. Some of that a machine can do reliably; some needs a person. We do the first part, write in the picture descriptions you approve, and tell you exactly what is left.
Do you write the alt text for my pictures? #
We draft it, and you decide. AI writes a description for each picture, shown next to the picture so you can check it against what it describes. Correct any that are wrong, or mark a picture as decoration so a screen reader skips it. Nothing goes into your file until you apply your choices; then we write them in and re-check the document. We draft rather than decide because a description that is wrong is worse than none: everything looks fixed when it is not.
Can I keep my own colours? #
Yes, in two ways. Every colour we changed is listed with its before and after, and you can set your own hex code on any of them - we re-check the document and show you what it measures, even if your colour still falls short. Or undo the colour changes entirely and keep every other repair. The only colour we refuse is one that reads worse than what your document already has.
Do you mark the file as PDF/UA? #
Only when it has earned it. PDF/UA requires a conforming document to declare itself in its metadata, and checkers like PAC report a missing declaration as an error. We write it when our re-check finds nothing else wrong, then validate the result again. On a document that still fails something, we leave it out: a false claim of conformance is worse than none.
Will it change how my document looks? #
No. We check: every repaired document is rendered page by page and compared with your original, and if it does not look the same we throw our version away and keep yours. That check exists because an automatic repair can improve every technical measure while visibly damaging the page.
What if it doesn't work? #
Then you pay nothing. We run the repair for free, re-check the document afterwards, and only ask for money against an improvement we have already measured. On our own test set one document in nine could not be improved at all, and that one would have been free.
Is my document stored? #
No. It is held in memory while we work and never written to disk. After about thirty minutes it is gone, and you would need to upload it again.
Does this make my PDF fully compliant? #
Usually not on its own, and any tool promising otherwise is overselling. Automatic repair clears the structural barriers, which is most of the distance for most documents. What remains needs a person, and we list exactly what and where.
How this compares to Acrobat, CommonLook, axesPDF and Equidox #
A side-by-side of what each tool does, what it runs on and what you are signing up to pay - including the things they do better than us, and why the two free checkers worth running are not in the table.
Want to see what is wrong first? #
The checker gives you a full audit against WCAG 2.2 and PDF/UA, with every issue and where it is. You can repair it from there too.