A Drupal PDF Accessibility Module for the Documents Nobody Remembers Uploading
A screen reader hits a scanned agenda PDF and reads nothing, because there is no text layer at all. PDF Accessibility Remediator scans every PDF referenced by a File or Media entity, scores it against WCAG 2.1 AA and PDF/UA, and builds a queue ranked by how many people are likely to hit the broken file.
Your Document Library Is Bigger Than Your Website. It’s Also Less Accessible.
Council packets, budget reports, meeting minutes, and forms pile up as PDFs for years, attached to nodes across every department. Manual remediation runs 20 to 30 minutes per document once someone actually finds the problem files. A department with 3,000 archived PDFs is looking at 1,000-plus staff hours to fix by hand, which is why most agencies never start.
This module installs on any Drupal 10.6+ or Drupal 11 site with Composer, and pairs with WPPersona's WCAG 2.1 AA compliance approach. No CMS migration required.
20-30 min
average manual remediation time per inaccessible PDF, per Section 508 program guidance
What PDF Accessibility Remediator Actually Checks
Every feature below maps to a specific WCAG 2.1 success criterion, not a vague accessibility claim. Here's exactly what changes on your Drupal site.
Upload-time scanning
Every PDF added as a File or Media entity is scanned automatically for tag structure, reading order, and a searchable text layer within minutes of upload, using Drupal’s Queue API and cron.
Risk-scored remediation queue
Existing PDFs are ranked by page views and severity of the failure in a Views dashboard, so the highest-traffic, most-broken documents get fixed first instead of whatever was uploaded most recently.
Scanned document detection
Image-only PDFs with no text layer are flagged separately from tagged PDFs with structural problems, since scanned documents need OCR before any tagging work can start.
Reading order validation
Multi-column layouts, tables, and sidebars are checked against the tag tree to confirm a screen reader encounters content in the order a sighted reader would follow.
Multisite Drush scanning
A drush command scans the document library of any subsite in a multisite install, so a state platform running dozens of agency sites can audit them all from one scripted job.
From composer require to Fixed, in Four Steps
Connect your file system
The module indexes every existing PDF referenced by File and Media entities and begins scanning in the background on cron, without taking your site offline.
Get a risk-ranked report
Within 24 to 48 hours for most sites, a Views report gives a document-by-document score with the specific WCAG failures found in each file.
Work the remediation queue
Fix tagged PDFs directly with linked guidance, or route scanned documents to OCR before tagging. Track progress by department or content type.
Gate new uploads
Turn on the publish gate so a node holding a failing PDF stays unpublished until the document passes a minimum score, and the backlog stops growing.
“We had 4,000 PDFs going back to a D6 site. The risk report told us 340 of them accounted for 80 percent of the traffic. We fixed those first and bought ourselves time on the rest.”
IT Director, State Agency Sub-Department
Common Questions About PDF Accessibility Remediator
Can this module fix a PDF automatically without a person involved?
It fixes what is safe to automate, like adding a missing document title and language tag. Reading order and heading structure need a person to confirm the tag tree matches the visual layout, since getting that wrong can make a document less accessible, not more.
What is PDF/UA and how is it different from WCAG?
PDF/UA (ISO 14289) is a technical standard specific to the PDF tag structure. WCAG 2.1 AA is the broader web content standard. A PDF that meets PDF/UA structural requirements generally satisfies the WCAG success criteria that apply to documents, which is why the module checks both.
How does this relate to the WPPersona PDF Accessibility product?
The hosted PDF Accessibility product crawls any public URL with no CMS at all. This module brings the same scanning and risk-ranking engine inside Drupal, tied to your File and Media entities, so remediation status lives next to the content it belongs to.
Get PDF Accessibility Remediator on Your Drupal Site
There's no self-serve checkout yet. Submit the form and our team confirms your license tier, sends pricing, and gives you private Composer repository access with installation instructions within 1 business day.
- Drupal 10.6+ or Drupal 11, PHP 8.1+, works with File and Media entities at any library size
- License covers updates and support for 12 months
Need more than one? See the full Accessibility Suite bundle.
Request to Purchase
Tell us which modules you need. We'll send licensing and setup details.
Pairs Well With
Looking for the deeper compliance picture? Read how these modules fit into WCAG 2.1 AA compliance for government websites, or browse our accessibility resources hub for guides on ADA Title II deadlines.
See Your Agency's PDF Risk in 2 Minutes
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