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Document Accessibility Check, Built for Non-Experts

Accessibility Audit Report

A compliance-informed audit of a publisher document. Findings written so they can be quoted directly in correspondence and procurement records.

Document titleIntroduction to Statistics, Chapter 4: Probability Distributions
ISBN / DOI978-0-XX-XXXXXX-X
PublisherSample Publisher Limited
Pages42
Audit date27 April 2026
Tracking IDT6-2026-0427-A14F
ToolEquitableDocs Tool 6, v0.1 preview
Does not conform

This document fails accessibility conformance against the standards listed below.

Headline finding, quotable

Students with blindness and low vision do not have access to this document. The publisher has not added image descriptions to 12 images, has not set the correct reading order in 4 sections, and has not labelled the column headers in 1 table. Three of the sixteen issues prevent these students from using the document at all.

From the EquitableDocs Tool 6 Document Accessibility Check, 27 April 2026, sample document.
Sample University, Disability Services Tracking ID T6-2026-0427-A14F

Executive summary

A faculty-readable overview, with quotable lines pulled out for correspondence.

1. Severity at a glance

Blocker Prevents any meaningful access by screen reader users. 3
High-impact Renders significant content unreadable or out of order. 8
Polish Affects cleaner reading; not blocking. 5

2. Scope of this audit

EquitableDocs is the bridge and the last-mile delivery. This section names what the automated tool covers, what the EquitableDocs Accessibility Collective handles in the same workflow, and what is on the roadmap for upcoming versions.

What this audit covered, automated

Tool 6 v0.1 evaluated the document against seven categories of accessibility defect. Findings are evidence-based, with a screen-reader transcript and tag-tree screenshot for every defect entry.

Last-mile remediation by EquitableDocs

No automated tool can reliably verify the items below. EquitableDocs handles them as part of the same workflow, through the Accessibility Collective: trained members with the relevant specialism complete the remediation. The institution does not need to find another vendor.

Detection coverage, v2 roadmap

Coming in the next version of Tool 6.

  • PowerPoint detector module. .pptx files audited end to end.
  • Word inline-image vision pass. AI check on alt-text meaningfulness for Word.
  • Equation alt-text quality check. Pairing with Mathpix or equivalent.
Track B, v3 roadmap

Longer-horizon work for institutional partners.

  • Self-hosted kit. Universities run Tool 6 inside their own infrastructure.
  • Cross-institutional Publisher Accessibility Index. Aggregate publisher conformance scoring.
Boundaries of our claims

What this audit does not assert, by design.

3. Acceptance checklist

The document is ready for screen-reader users when every row below shows MET. Each row gives the statement in plain language, with the corresponding PDF / remediator term shown in muted text below.

Sample University, Disability Services Tracking ID T6-2026-0427-A14F

4. What screen reader users encounter on each page

Each entry leads with the screen-reader experience in plain language. Technical detail (detector output, Matterhorn checkpoint, why-list, verify steps) sits in a single muted footer at the bottom of the entry, available for procurement and remediator records.

4.1 Tagging

D-001 High Page 1, structure position 17. Detector class: tagging.

What this sounds like
Each author name reads as a separate paragraph, with a half-second pause between names.

A blind student hears nine isolated names with audible silences between them, the same way a sighted reader would experience the page if every author name had a blank line above and below it. The block stops reading like a list and starts reading like nine unrelated facts.

Screen reader output
NVDA
M Boutros [paragraph] G Awad [paragraph] A Adio [paragraph] [seven more, each as a paragraph]
Tag tree evidence ▸ <Document> ▸ <Sect> <H1> Introduction to Stats <P> Chapter 4 prelude <P> M Boutros <P> G Awad <P> A Adio <P> R Sharma <P> S Patel <P> ... 4 more <P> Affiliations <P> Abstract opens
Fix in Acrobat Pro
  1. Open Tags panel. Locate position 4 in the structure tree, page 1.
  2. Select positions 4 through 12 (the nine <P> tags from "M Boutros" to the last author).
  3. Right-click on position 4. New Tag, type List, title "Authors". Drag positions 5 to 12 inside the new <L>.
  4. For each child, change tag from <P> to <LI>. Add an <LBody> inside.
  5. Save. Re-run Acrobat Read Out Loud on page 1 to verify no paragraph pauses between names.
Every occurrence, ticked off as you fix

Nine occurrences. Work through each in order. Tick the box once the tag is corrected and saved.

PageStructure positionCurrent tagAuthor name
14<P>M Boutros
15<P>G Awad
16<P>A Adio
17<P>R Sharma
18<P>S Patel
19<P>K Iyer
110<P>P Mehta
111<P>D Singh
112<P>B Rao

D-002 Blocker Pages 4, 7, 12. Detector class: tagging. Twenty-eight occurrences.

What this sounds like
The screen reader says “blank” twenty-eight times across the document.

The student cannot tell whether each “blank” is a fill-in slot they need to write into, a layout gap they should skip past, or a genuine missing word in the source text. Comprehension breaks every few seconds; the student must re-read surrounding sentences to recover meaning.

Screen reader output
NVDA
What is your guess? blank Subtract to test your answer. blank minus blank equal to blank Nate has blank shells left.
Tag tree evidence
Fix in Acrobat Pro
  1. Open Tags panel. Use Find (Ctrl+F in the panel) for ActualText="blank".
  2. Work through the occurrences in the table below. For each, page reference and position are given.
  3. Right-click the Span at the named position. Properties > Tag tab > clear the ActualText value.
  4. For occurrences that mark a fill-in slot, set ActualText="" and tag the slot as a form field.
  5. Save. Re-run veraPDF on the file. Matterhorn 04-001 should report zero failures.
Every occurrence, ticked off as you fix

Twenty-eight occurrences across pages 4, 7, and 12. First six shown. Full enumeration in the attached defect log (Appendix H).

PagePositionSpan contentLikely intent
423[blank]fill-in answer slot
424[blank]fill-in answer slot
425[blank]fill-in answer slot
447[blank]layout artefact
718[blank]fill-in answer slot
719[blank]fill-in answer slot
22 further occurrences listed in Appendix H. Defect log table.

4.2 Reading order

D-003 Blocker Page 9, structure positions 4 to 7. Detector class: reading_order.

What this sounds like
On page 9, the answer is announced before the question.

A blind student hears the answer “twenty-five” first and the question “what is five squared” second. A sighted student would see them in the right order on the page; the blind student hears them backwards and cannot follow the lesson’s logic. The student has no way to know that the underlying file disagrees with the visible page.

Screen reader output
NVDA
The answer is twenty-five. [paragraph] What is five squared? [paragraph]
Page canvas evidence
Fix in Acrobat Pro
  1. Tags panel, page 9. Locate position 4 (currently the answer paragraph) and position 7 (currently the question).
  2. Drag position 7 above position 4 in the structure tree.
  3. The visible page layout must not shift; only the tag-tree order changes.
  4. Save. Run Acrobat Read Aloud on page 9. The question must be announced before the answer.
Every occurrence, ticked off as you fix

One occurrence. The pattern may recur in other question-answer worksheets in the document; check pages with similar layouts after this fix.

PageStructure positionsIssue
94 to 7Answer paragraph at position 4 precedes question at position 7. Visual order has them reversed.

Thirteen further entries follow this same pattern across alt text, headings, tables, forms, and cognitive accessibility. Truncated in this preview.

Sample University, Disability Services Tracking ID T6-2026-0427-A14F

Appendix A. Standards reference

Cite-able mapping for legal, compliance, and procurement correspondence.

Issue typeMatterhorn / PDF/UA-1WCAG 2.2 AAEN 301 549
Empty Span ActualText announces "blank"Matterhorn 04-001
PDF/UA-1 7.18
SC 1.1.110.1.1.1
Reading order mismatch with visual layoutMatterhorn 09-001
PDF/UA-1 7.2
SC 1.3.210.1.3.2
Author block tagged as separate paragraphsMatterhorn 09-002SC 1.3.110.1.3.1
Image without alt textMatterhorn 13-004
PDF/UA-1 7.3
SC 1.1.110.1.1.1
Table header row not marked TH with ScopeMatterhorn 15-002
PDF/UA-1 7.5
SC 1.3.110.1.3.1
Heading level skippedMatterhorn 14-001
PDF/UA-1 7.4
SC 1.3.110.1.3.1
Document language not declaredMatterhorn 11-001
PDF/UA-1 7.21
SC 3.1.110.3.1.1

Standards versions applied. WCAG 2.2 AA, October 2023. PDF/UA-1, ISO 14289-1:2014. EN 301 549 V3.2.1 (2021-03), clause 10. Matterhorn Protocol v1.1, PDF Association, 2021.

Sample University, Disability Services Tracking ID T6-2026-0427-A14F

Appendix B. Aggregate metrics

Document-level numbers for procurement records and aggregate reporting.

Total pages42PDF, version 1.7
Total issues16Across 7 detector classes
Pages with blockers37 percent of pages
Reading-time impact28 minEstimated overhead vs accessible baseline
Sighted-help moments3Where the student must ask for help
Acceptance checklist5 of 12Statements currently met

Detector classes that ran

Reading-time impact, methodology

Reading-time overhead is estimated as the additional time a screen reader user takes to navigate the document compared with an accessible baseline. The estimate combines counts of "blank" announcements, reorder corrections, alt-text rereads, and table-navigation falls-back to default cell reading. The number is indicative, not measured per user.

Sample University, Disability Services Tracking ID T6-2026-0427-A14F

Appendix C. Summary checklist before resubmission

Re-upload the file once each statement is true. Tool 6 will re-check and update the acceptance list.

  1. The author block is tagged as a single <P> with comma-separated names, or as an <L> with nine <LI> children.
  2. No <Span> with ActualText="blank" remains. NVDA does not announce "blank" between content.
  3. Every question paragraph appears in the tag tree before its answer paragraph or fill-in slot.
  4. Every <Figure> has descriptive alt text. No placeholder alt text such as "image" or "graphic".
  5. Every data table has a header row tagged with <TH Scope="col"> (or "row" as appropriate). No data table is tagged as a layout table.
  6. The Acrobat Accessibility Checker reruns with zero new failures.
  7. veraPDF passes with zero PDF/UA-1 violations.
  8. Read Out Loud on two random pages flows naturally, with no strange pauses or repeated words.

Tools to re-run before resubmission

Sample University, Disability Services Tracking ID T6-2026-0427-A14F

Appendix D. Scope and limitations

Honest scope is the EquitableDocs voice signature. Read this before quoting numbers from the report.

What this report does claim

What this report does NOT claim

Tool version and roadmap

Tool 6 v0.1, the preview release. Deferred to later versions:

How to escalate

If the publisher does not respond within sixty days, the institution may escalate to: the Office of the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, the UGC accessibility cell, or the regional disability commissioner.

Sample University, Disability Services Tracking ID T6-2026-0427-A14F

Appendix E. Statements you can copy

Lines from this audit, written so they stand on their own. Grouped by who you are speaking to. Copy any of them as is.

If you only use one line, use this one

Students with blindness and low vision do not have access to this document. The publisher has not added image descriptions to 12 images, has not set the correct reading order in 4 sections, and has not labelled the column headers in 1 table.

From the cover page, headline finding.
Writing to the publisher, procurement, or legal Compliance-frame statements suitable for formal correspondence and procurement records.
Describing what the student experiences For faculty briefings, disability-services conversations, and slide decks. Plain language, reader-centred.
Giving numerical context For grant proposals, annual reports, and procurement business cases.
Sample University, Disability Services Tracking ID T6-2026-0427-A14F

Appendix F. Compliance summary, all 31 evaluated checkpoints

PAC-style summary of which checkpoints fail and which pass. Cite-able for legal, compliance, and procurement correspondence.

Standard / checkpoint Status Failures Plain-language note
Matterhorn 04-001 (PDF/UA-1 7.18), Span ActualTextFail28Empty Span elements announce "blank" to screen readers.
Matterhorn 09-001 (PDF/UA-1 7.2), reading orderFail4Some paragraphs are tagged out of visual order.
Matterhorn 09-002, paragraph fragmentationFail9Author block tagged as separate paragraphs, not a list.
Matterhorn 13-002, figure alt-text qualityFail3Three figures use placeholder alt text such as "image".
Matterhorn 13-004 (PDF/UA-1 7.3), figures presentFail12Twelve figures have no alt text attribute at all.
Matterhorn 15-002 (PDF/UA-1 7.5), table headersFail1One table missing TH and Scope.
Matterhorn 28-002, form-field tooltipsFail2Two form fields have no tooltip / accessible name.
Matterhorn 01-001, real content taggedPass0All real content is reachable through the structure tree.
Matterhorn 01-003, structure type nestingPass0Nested types follow the PDF/UA-1 nesting rules.
Matterhorn 02-001, role mapping to standard typesPass0Custom tags are role-mapped to standard structure types.
Matterhorn 06-001, document titlePass0Document title is set in metadata.
Matterhorn 06-002, ViewerPreferences DisplayDocTitlePass0The reader displays the document title, not the file name.
Matterhorn 07-001, suspect markingsPass0No suspect-content markers remain in the structure tree.
Matterhorn 09-003, sect tag usePass0Sect tags wrap genuine document divisions, not single headings.
Matterhorn 09-004, block-level structurePass0Block-level content is tagged with block-level structure types.
Matterhorn 10-001, role mapping completenessPass0Every custom role maps to a defined standard type.
Matterhorn 11-001 (PDF/UA-1 7.21), document languagePass0Language declared as en-US at the Document level.
Matterhorn 11-002, span language attributesPass0No language changes mid-paragraph require a Span Lang.
Matterhorn 14-001 (PDF/UA-1 7.4), heading levels existPass0Headings are tagged using H1 to H6 elements.
Matterhorn 14-002, heading hierarchy not skippedPass0No heading level is skipped (no H1 followed directly by H3).
Matterhorn 15-001, table summary attributePass0Data tables include a Summary attribute where required.
Matterhorn 15-003, layout vs data tablesPass0Layout tables are marked as Artifact, not as data tables.
Matterhorn 17-001, list structurePass0Lists use L, LI, and LBody where present.
Matterhorn 17-002, list labelsPass0List item labels (Lbl) are present where the list shows numbers or bullets.
Matterhorn 19-003, optional contentPass0Optional content is tagged so it is reachable when activated.
Matterhorn 21-001, native PDF objects, page boundariesPass0Page-break artifacts do not appear inside content tags.
Matterhorn 25-001, annotations taggedPass0Hyperlinks and other annotations are tagged with Link wrappers.
Matterhorn 26-001, action triggersPass0No action triggers depend on visual or pointer input only.
Matterhorn 28-001 (PDF/UA-1 7.18), form fields taggedPass0All form fields are tagged in the structure tree.
WCAG 2.2 AA SC 1.4.3, contrast minimumPass0Text contrast meets the 4.5 to 1 minimum on all spot-checked pages.
WCAG 2.2 AA SC 3.3.2, visible form labelsPass0All form fields have visible labels, not placeholder-only labels.

Summary: 7 of 31 evaluated checkpoints fail; 24 pass. PDF/UA-1 cannot be claimed for this document.

Sample University, Disability Services Tracking ID T6-2026-0427-A14F

Appendix G. Full screen-reader transcript

A literal record of what NVDA reads aloud across the document. Lines from this transcript appear as evidence in defect entries; the appendix is the complete record. Use this as an evidence artefact for re-audit after remediation, or as supporting material in correspondence with the publisher.

NVDA transcript, full document
Page 1 heading level 1: Introduction to Statistics heading level 2: Chapter 4: Probability Distributions M Boutros [paragraph] G Awad [paragraph] A Adio [paragraph] R Sharma [paragraph] S Patel [four more authors as paragraphs] Department of Mathematics Page 2 heading level 2: Abstract This chapter introduces probability distributions used in undergraduate statistics. graphic heading level 3: Learning objectives Page 4 heading level 2: Practice questions Question 1: Nate finds 50 shells. He gives 20 shells to Josh. How many shells does Nate have left? What is your guess? blank Subtract to test your answer. blank minus blank equal to blank Nate has blank shells left. Page 7 Question 2: Anna needs 70 beads for a craft. She has 30 beads. How many more beads does Anna need? Anna needs blank more beads. graphic Page 9 heading level 3: Worked example The answer is twenty-five. [paragraph] What is five squared? [paragraph] Solution method. Page 12 Question 3: Lucy reads for 20 minutes. Ty reads for 10 minutes less than Lucy. How many minutes does Ty read? Ty reads for blank minutes. Page 15 heading level 2: Summary A probability distribution describes the likelihood of each possible outcome of a random variable. graphic End of chapter.

Page-by-page captions: orange page-marker headers indicate page number transitions. Amber-highlighted text marks where a defect was detected. The "Hear it aloud" button reads the full transcript using the browser's default voice. This is a simulation of how a screen reader announces the document; it is not the actual NVDA voice. For full fidelity, run NVDA on the source PDF.

Sample University, Disability Services Tracking ID T6-2026-0427-A14F

Appendix H. Defect log, all sixteen entries

CSV-equivalent log of every defect found in the document. One row per defect. Use this as a project-management tracker through remediation, or import to a spreadsheet for procurement records. A machine-readable .csv version is shipped alongside this report.

ID Severity Page Position Detector class Headline, plain language
D-001High14 to 12taggingEach author name reads as a separate paragraph
D-002Blocker4, 7, 12multipletaggingScreen reader announces "blank" twenty-eight times
D-003Blocker94 to 7reading_orderAnswer announced before the question
D-004High23alt_textTitle page logo has no description
D-005Polish312alt_textDecorative divider should be tagged as artifact
D-006Blocker57alt_textProbability tree (Figure 1.1) has no description
D-007High64table_headersTable missing TH and Scope on header row
D-008High722alt_textBar chart (Figure 1.2) has no description
D-009High814alt_textVenn diagram (Figure 1.3) has no description
D-010High109alt_textHistogram (Figure 1.4) has no description
D-011High1117alt_textScatter plot (Figure 1.5) has no description
D-012High1128alt_textRegression line (Figure 1.6) has no description
D-013Polish135 to 6reading_orderFootnote read before main paragraph it qualifies
D-014Polish1411reading_orderPage number read mid-sentence
D-015Polish158alt_textEquation graphic without alt text
D-016Polish163alt_textDecorative bullet treated as content

Severity counts: 3 blockers, 8 high-impact, 5 polish. Total 16 defects across 7 detector classes. The .csv companion file uses the same column order and is suitable for import into Excel, Google Sheets, or any project management tool.