Accessibility error messages, explained

Acrobat’s “Appropriate nesting – Failed” means heading levels are out of order, often a skipped level. How heading outlines work and how to fix them.

Acrobat’s “Associated with content – Failed” means alt text sits on a tag with nothing on the page. Why it happens, often after edits, and how to fix it.

Acrobat’s “Bookmarks – Failed” means a document of 21 or more pages has no bookmarks. How to create them from headings in Acrobat Pro, Word and InDesign.

Acrobat’s “Character encoding – Failed” means some text can’t be turned into real characters, so it reads as garbage. How to test it and how to fix it.

Acrobat always says “Color contrast – Needs manual check” because it doesn’t measure contrast. The WCAG ratios to meet and how to check and fix them.

Acrobat’s “Figures alternate text – Failed” means images have no alt text. How to add it in Acrobat Pro, mark decorative images and write useful alt text.

Acrobat’s “Image-only PDF – Failed” means pages are pictures of text, usually scans. Why OCR alone isn’t enough, and how to make a scanned PDF accessible.

Acrobat’s List items and Lbl and LBody rules fail when list tags are nested wrongly. The correct L, LI, Lbl and LBody structure and how to fix it.

Why Acrobat always says “Logical Reading Order – Needs manual check”, how to check reading order yourself, and how to fix tags that are out of order.

Acrobat’s “Nested alternate text” and “Hides annotation” failures mean alt text is on the wrong tag. Why that hides content and how to fix it.

Acrobat’s “Other elements alternate text – Failed” covers non-figure content that needs alt text, like formulas and media. What to describe and how.

Acrobat’s “Primary language – Failed” means a PDF doesn’t say what language it’s in. How to set it, fix invalid codes and mark passages in other languages.

Acrobat’s “Tab order – Failed” means pages don’t tab through links and fields in structure order. What the setting does and how to fix it in Acrobat Pro.

What Acrobat’s table rules (Rows, TH and TD, Headers, Regularity and Summary) check, why tables fail them, and how to fix table tags in Acrobat Pro.

Acrobat’s “Tagged annotations – Failed” means links, comments or stamps aren’t in the tag tree. Step-by-step fixes in Acrobat Pro and at the source.

Acrobat’s form rules fail when fillable fields aren’t tagged or have no tooltip. How to tag fields, write field descriptions and handle XFA forms.

Acrobat’s “Title – Failed” means a PDF has no title or doesn’t show it in the title bar. How to set and display the title, and how to write a good one.

PAC fails “Annotation has alt text” when a comment, stamp, highlight or attachment has no description. Here’s what it means and how to fix it.

PAC fails “Content is tagged or artifacted” when page content is neither tagged nor marked as decoration. What it means and how to fix it.

PAC fails “Figure has bbox” when a Figure tag doesn’t record where its image sits on the page. What a bounding box is, why it matters and how to fix it.

What a correct Figure tag needs under PDF/UA: alt text, a bounding box, the right content and the right place. How to fix Figure tag errors in PAC.

PAC fails “Fonts are embedded” when a PDF uses fonts it doesn’t include. Why PDF/UA requires embedded fonts, how to check, and how to fix it.

PAC fails “Link annotations in Link tag” when a link’s clickable area isn’t inside a Link tag. Learn how PDF links are built and how to fix them.

PAC fails “Non-standard structure type is remapped” when custom tags aren’t mapped to standard ones in the role map. What it means and how to fix it.

PAC reports “PDF/UA identifier missing” when a PDF’s metadata doesn’t claim PDF/UA. Why to add it last, only after the file passes, and how.

PAC fails “TH has associated cells” when a table header isn’t linked to its data cells. Learn about scope, headers and IDs, and how to fix it.

PAC fails “Widget annotations in Form tag” when fillable fields aren’t tagged as Form. Why it happens with PDF forms and how to fix it in Acrobat.

What “Accessibility: Investigate” means in Office’s status bar, why some files can’t be checked, and what the checker doesn’t check. How to fix each issue.

Can’t find the Alt Text pane in Word, Excel or PowerPoint? Where it is in each version, how to mark images decorative, and why it sometimes won’t open.