Accessibility standards

What CampusMind checks a document against, and how PDF/UA and WCAG work together.

In short

WCAG describes the outcome a reader gets; PDF/UA describes the machinery inside the file that produces it — and CampusMind checks the machinery, because that is the part a checker can prove.

Checked against: PDF/UA-1 (ISO 14289-1) — 106 rules, verified by VeraPDF
WCAG criteria covered: The document-level ones a checker can verify — 1.1.1, 1.3.1, 1.3.2, 2.4.2, 2.4.6 and 3.1.1, plus contrast reporting
Also serves: Section 508 and EN 301 549, which both point back to WCAG
Your score is: Measured evidence of what remediation changed, per document

What makes a PDF inaccessible

An inaccessible PDF is rarely missing its content — what is missing is the structure underneath, the machine-readable layer that says this is a heading, this is a data table and these are its headers, this image means this. Without it a PDF is a picture of a document: a screen reader can often scrape the text, but it cannot offer heading navigation, announce a table cell together with its column, or describe a figure.

What CampusMind checks

Every remediated document is validated against PDF/UA-1 (ISO 14289-1) using VeraPDF, the open-source conformance checker. There are 106 rules, and a document's score is the share it passes.

Validation runs against the original file as well as the remediated one, which is what makes the before-and-after comparison possible.

The WCAG criteria we check

PDF/UA-1 exists to encode what WCAG asks of a PDF, so scoring it exercises the document-level criteria directly. These are the ones remediation moves:

WCAG criterion	What it asks for	What remediation does
1.1.1 Non-text Content	Images convey their meaning	Generates alt text; marks decorative images as artifacts
1.3.1 Info and Relationships	Structure is machine-readable, not just visual	Tags headings, lists, tables, paragraphs; sets table headers
1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence	Content is read in a sensible order	Sets reading order independent of visual layout
2.4.2 Page Titled	The document has a real title	Sets the title in metadata
2.4.6 Headings and Labels	Headings describe their sections	Applies a correct, non-skipping heading structure
3.1.1 Language of Page	The language is declared	Sets the document language
1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum)	Text meets a 4.5:1 ratio	Detected and reported, so you can act on it deliberately

Contrast is handled differently on purpose: the failure lives in the source design, so Full Accessibility Reconstruction can improve it while rebuilding a page, and Preserve Layout reports it rather than silently restyling a document you asked it to leave alone.

How WCAG and PDF/UA fit together

WCAG is outcome-based and format-neutral: it describes what an accessible result looks like, not how a PDF should be built inside. PDF/UA is its PDF-specific counterpart, defining the internal machinery — tag tree, role mapping, artifact marking — that lets a PDF behave accessibly.

	WCAG 2.2	PDF/UA-1
What it describes	The outcome for a reader	The internal structure of the file
Applies to	Any format	PDF only
Named by law	Yes, regulations cite WCAG	Cited in procurement and by standards bodies
Machine-checkable	The document-level criteria	Yes, across all 106 rules
How CampusMind uses it	The outcome we work toward, reached through the criteria PDF/UA encodes	Scored directly, on every document

PDF/UA conformance covers most document-relevant WCAG criteria, which is why it is the standard worth measuring: it is the closest a machine can get to the outcome WCAG describes.

How to read your score

Your score is the share of 106 machine-checkable rules a document passes — real, reportable evidence of what remediation changed, and the basis of the before-and-after in every report.

Where your judgment adds the most

A checker confirms that an image has alt text, that a table has headers, and that a reading order exists. Whether the description is apt, whether the headers describe the right cells, and whether the order matches the author's intent are questions worth your eyes — and the Tag & Caption Editor is where you settle them. That is also why conformance is a claim your institution makes: the score is what you make it with.

Coverage keeps expanding

Detection improves release to release — more document structures recognised, better captions on the content types that need subject knowledge, and more of the remaining issues surfaced by name rather than left to be found by hand. What each release changed is recorded in the Releases notes.

Other standards you may be asked about

Standard	What it is	How it relates
Section 508	The US federal standard	Its technical requirements incorporate WCAG 2.0 AA by reference
EN 301 549	The European standard, and the basis for European Accessibility Act conformance	Clause 10 covers non-web documents and maps closely onto PDF checks

Both point back to WCAG, so the same structural work serves both.

A VPAT for the CampusMind application is available from your CampusMind contact on request. It describes the software; a PDF/UA validation report describes one remediated document. Procurement usually wants both.