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.

Screen Readers

NVDA

https://www.nvaccess.org

JAWS

https://www.freedomscientific.com/products/software/jaws

Apple Voice Over

https://www.apple.com/accessibility/vision

Color Checkers

TPGi Color Contrast Analyzer

https://www.tpgi.com/color-contrast-checker

WebAIM Color Contrast Checker

https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker

8-Shapes Contrast Grid

https://contrast-grid.eightshapes.com

Microsoft Color Simulations

https://www.microsoft.com/design/color

Sim Daltonism

https://michelf.ca/projects/sim-daltonism

Daltonizer

https://play.google.com/store/apps/

Adobe Illustrator

https://www.adobe.com

Adobe Photoshop

https://www.adobe.com

Color.Adobe

https://color.adobe.com/

Acrobat Plugins

CommonLook PDF

https://commonlook.com

Callas PDFgoHTML

https://www.callassoftware.com

MS Word Plugins

CommonLook Office

https://commonlook.com

axesWord

https://www.axes4.com

Google Extension

Grackle Docs

https://www.grackledocs.com

InDesign Plugins

MadeToTag

https://www.axaio.com/madetotag

PDF Remidiators

Adobe Acrobat Pro DC

https://www.adobe.com/acrobat

Adobe Bridge

https://www.adobe.com

axesPDF

https://www.axes4.com

Abby Fine Reader

https://www.abbyy.com/

PDFix

https://pdfix.net

Responsive Table Generator Tool

https://ianrmedia.unl.edu/website-resources/responsive-table-generator-tool/

Grackle PDF

https://www.grackledocs.com/grackle-pdf

Vengage

https://venngage.com

PREP (Continual Engine)

https://www.continualengine.com/prep

PDF Checker

PAC Checker 2026

https://pac.pdf-accessibility.org

CommonLook Validator

https://netcentric.allyant.com/accessibility-software/pdf-validator/

InDesign Scripts

Keith Gilbert InDesign Scripts

https://gilbertconsulting.com

Virtualization for Mac

Parallels Desktop

https://www.parallels.com

Windows OS

https://www.microsoft.com/windows

Karabiner-Elements

https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org