---
title: "Accessibility best practices"
canonical_url: "https://www.nutrient.io/guides/dws-accessibility/developer-guides/accessibility-best-practices/"
md_url: "https://www.nutrient.io/guides/dws-accessibility/developer-guides/accessibility-best-practices.md"
last_updated: "2026-06-09T10:24:29.130Z"
description: "Practical guidance for producing accessible PDFs in real-world remediation workflows."
---

# Accessibility best practices

Use the checklist below to produce accessible PDFs in remediation pipelines.

## Preserve structure first

Build and keep meaningful structure before and after processing:

- Keep heading levels consistent.

- Tag lists as lists, not as plain paragraphs.

- Add correct table semantics for rows and cells.

## Verify reading order

Set reading order to match how people read the content, not just how objects appear on the page.

- Test documents with screen readers.

- Verify that multicolumn content reads in the intended sequence.

## Keep non-text content meaningful

Mark decorative content as artifacts when appropriate. Add descriptions for meaningful graphics so assistive technologies can interpret them.

## Design for keyboard and assistive technology users

When you generate or edit source documents, keep navigation and interaction accessible:

- Add clear labels to form controls.

- Keep tab and focus order predictable.

- Maintain sufficient color contrast in exported visual content.

## Add human QA for high-stakes outputs

Auto-tagging reduces manual effort, but legal and compliance-heavy documents still need human review before publication.

Use the release gates below for production remediated documents:

- Run sample-based manual reviews.

- Run automated checks in CI/CD.

- Run regression checks when templates change.

---

## Related pages

- [Auto-tag PDFs via API](/guides/dws-accessibility/developer-guides/auto-tag-pdfs.md)
- [DWS Accessibility API developer guides](/guides/dws-accessibility/developer-guides.md)
- [Introduction to PDF/UA and auto-tagging](/guides/dws-accessibility/developer-guides/introduction-to-pdfua-and-auto-tagging.md)