Accessible PDF files using LaTeX

• The MathFest poster and its reading by NVDA in Foxit
• Make sure you have the latest TeX version, and have updated your packages
• As the first commands, use

  \DocumentMetadata{
    lang=en,
    tagging=on,
    pdfstandard=ua-2,
  %  check-tagging-status,
    tagging-setup={
  %    math/alt/use,  % <=> Formulas must have description/alt text
      math/setup=mathml-SE
    }
  }
  \documentclass{...}
  \usepackage{unicode-math}
  

• Compile with LuaLaTeX
• Any \includegraphics, \tikz, or {tikzpicture} or {picture} environments need alt={...} in the options (if the image is truly decorative, you can use the option artifact instead of alt; a different option is actualtext={...} if your image is really text in disguise). Other alt text guidelines. See texdoc latex-lab-graphic for more.
• Before tabular (or similar), use \tagpdfsetup{table/header-rows={...},table/header-columns={...}}. Use \tagpdfsetup{table/multirow={...}} within such cells. See texdoc latex-lab-table for more.
• The check-tagging-status key will report general class and package status.
• For more information.
• If you must, you can make the title act as a header, but using \section* is better.
• Further guidelines for presentations

Package/class substitutions:

• enumitem and enumerate -> enumext or texdoc blocks-doc for many new options
• marginnote, marginfit, and marginfix -> marginalia or \marginpar
• titlesec -> \@startsection (see texdoc source2e) or texdoc latex-lab-sec-template for many new options
• beamer -> ltx-talk

PDF Validators:

• veraPDF is used by the LaTeX team, has a command line interface, but reports the PDF address of any errors it finds
• PDFix uses the same algorithm as veraPDF, will show you where any errors are, but has no command line interface
• There are not many other PDF validators that can handle math.
• PDF validation false negatives
• FYI, Ally’s accessibility checklist. Note that Ally appears many times in the false negatives list, and also will readily award false positives. It’s judgement probably shouldn’t be trusted, but if it’s judging you, you have to jump through a hoop and uncomment the math/alt/use line.

PDF Screen readers:

• NVDA or JAWS (both Windows only); Orca on Linux
• Adobe, Foxit, or Firefox
• There are no others at this time

Other links:

• An ltx-talk template for UND themed presentations
• Test PDF files
• Tagging increases various system requirements, so you may need to increase some limits