At a glance
A PDF profile is a set of observed structural clues, not an accessibility verdict. DocAccessible reports tag-tree presence, interactive or XFA fields and advisory page-type or complexity evidence from bounded samples. Handwriting and printed-form hints require a successful, explicitly requested visual review and can remain uncertain or unavailable.
Use local evidence to sort the queue
The inventory adds bounded local profiles while it counts documents. It can help a team find files with interactive fields, no observed tag structure or image-heavy sampled pages. Those filters reduce the amount of manual sorting before review.
The local page-type sample covers up to six pages, not necessarily every page. A short letter and a long annual report therefore have different sampling coverage even if the visible profile label matches. Read which pages were inspected and keep unknown or unassessed states in the queue.
- A tag tree can be incomplete or misleading.
- A scanned page can include an OCR text layer.
- A static printed form can have no interactive PDF fields.
- A structure-recovered count can have an unassessed profile.
Request visual hints only when they help
Optional visual review is consented separately and depends on availability. The released inventory bounds it to at most 60 selected page images per purchase and two per unique PDF. This may suggest handwriting or printed-form content on inspected pages, but it is not a full-document classification.
A provider failure or uncertain result does not invalidate an independently verified page count. Keep the count and profile states separate. Review the processing choice before enabling visual analysis for documents that contain sensitive information.
Make a review decision, not a label decision
Use the profile to nominate a review sample, then inspect the actual task: reading a policy, completing a form, understanding a chart or following a drawing. A document can be visually simple and operationally important.
Record the reviewer’s findings in a priority sheet with the exact source revision. Route to authoring fixes, reviewed HTML conversion or specialist PDF work based on verified requirements. Do not assign a remediation quote solely from a sampled complexity label.
| Clue | First review task |
|---|---|
| Interactive form fields | Test labels, keyboard order and submission |
| Image-heavy pages | Compare OCR text with the page image |
| Tag structure present | Check reading order and semantic roles |
| Complexity uncertain | Inspect representative high-risk pages |
Scroll sideways to see all columns. Use arrow keys when the table is focused.
Sources and scope
Methods, worksheets and illustrative examples are DocAccessible editorial contributions. These references support the technical or product details described above. W3C techniques are informative guidance; they are not a certification scheme.
- DocAccessible PDF inventory
The counting workflow, report options and purchase boundary.
- W3C PDF12: form field names, roles and values
Programmatic field information required for usable PDF forms.
- W3C PDF7: OCR for scanned documents
Recovering actual text from scanned pages and checking the result.
Written by the DocAccessible team under our editorial policy. Suggest a correction if a source or product detail needs updating.
See the evidence in a working example
Explore the public sample inventory report to try its table, full-screen view and missing-count reasons. The downloadable counting fixture check records what the local counter returned for seven self-authored inputs, with hashes and explicit limits.