Articles and Research

The One Remediation Tool You Should Have…

What’s the best tool for making PDFs accessible?

It’s the question we get constantly, and the honest answer might surprise you.

There isn’t one.

In this episode of Chax Chat, Chad and Dax break down how the “best” accessibility tool depends entirely on your starting point. Are you working in Word, InDesign, PowerPoint, Google Docs, or Canva? Do you have a tagged PDF, an untagged PDF, or a scanned document? Each scenario changes the strategy.

We discuss why “born accessible” is always better than heavy remediation, when Adobe’s auto-tagging can actually help, why tools like MadeToTag and Access Word continue to be game changers, and how platforms like CommonLook, PDFix, PREP, and Grackle fit into the workflow. We also talk about handling scanned PDFs, the realities of screen reader testing, and why bookmarks aren’t the navigation solution many people think they are.

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed trying to choose the right accessibility tool, this episode will help you stop chasing a magic solution and start making smarter decisions based on context.

Every other week, we unravel accessibility so you can build more inclusive, compliant, and practical documents.

Listen to more Chax Chat Podcast Episodes


Show Notes

Screen Readers

NVDA

JAWS

Apple Voice Over

Color Checkers

TPGi Color Contrast Analyzer

WebAIM Color Contrast Checker

8-Shapes Contrast Grid

Microsoft Color Simulations

Sim Daltonism

Daltonizer

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Photoshop

Color.Adobe

Acrobat Plugins

CommonLook PDF

Callas PDFgoHTML

MS Word Plugins

CommonLook Office

axesWord

Google Extension

Grackle Docs

InDesign Plugins

MadeToTag

PDF Remediators

Adobe Acrobat Pro DC

Adobe Bridge

axesPDF

Abby Fine Reader

PDFix

Responsive Table Generator Tool

Grackle PDF

Vengage

PREP (Continual Engine)

PDF Checker

PAC Checker 2026

CommonLook Validator

InDesign Scripts

Keith Gilbert InDesign Scripts

Virtualization for Mac

Parallels Desktop

Windows OS

Karabiner-Elements

Need to speak with an expert right away?

Go to our Chax Expert Help Desk right away.

In this article:

Related Content

Related classes

Need help making your digital content more accessible?

Unravel common accessibility compliance principles! Download this useful WCAG in Plain English reference card.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.