Automatically Tag Legal Documents for Accessibility with AI and VeryPDF SDK
Every week, I found myself drowning in piles of scanned legal documents, trying to make sense of them and ensure they were accessible to everyone on my team. The worst part? Most of these PDFs were just imagesunsearchable, untagged, and a nightmare for accessibility tools like screen readers. If you’ve ever had to manually tag legal documents for accessibility, you know it’s tedious, time-consuming, and prone to errors. That’s exactly why I was excited to discover VeryPDF PDF Solutions for Developers, a toolkit that turned this headache into a streamlined process.
Why Accessibility Tagging Matters in Legal Documents
Legal teams handle tons of contracts, briefs, and compliance documents daily. These files aren’t just for readingthey need to be accessible for people using assistive technologies, meet compliance standards like PDF/UA and WCAG, and remain searchable for quick reference. Yet, many PDFs, especially scanned ones, come with no tags or logical structure. Without tags, screen readers stumble, making it tough for users with disabilities to navigate the content.
I knew there had to be a better way than manually tagging PDFs or relying on clunky, one-off tools.
How VeryPDF PDF Solutions for Developers Made My Workflow Smoother
I stumbled upon VeryPDF’s SDK while hunting for a developer-friendly solution to automatically tag legal documents for accessibility.
What’s cool about this SDK is it’s built for developers but straightforward enough that teams like ours can integrate it into existing workflows. Its core strength lies in its advanced OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology, powered by ABBYY FineReader Engine, which not only extracts text but adds the necessary tagging for accessibility compliance.
Here’s how it changed the game for me:
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OCR-powered Tagging: Instead of just scanning and storing PDFs as images, the SDK turns them into fully searchable and tagged documents. The OCR isn’t your average run-of-the-mill scannerit reads text in multiple languages and even pulls metadata like author names and document titles, helping with indexing and retrieval.
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Automated Accessibility Checks: The toolkit lets you batch-check hundreds of PDFs for compliance with PDF/UA and WCAG standards. It flags problems like missing tags, improper reading order, and structure issues, then spits out detailed JSON or XML reports. This saved me hours of manual spot-checking.
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Adding Structure to Non-Accessible PDFs: Even older PDFs with no tags get a logical reading order and hidden text layers added automatically, so screen readers can finally navigate them properly.
A Few Real-World Examples
For example, our legal department frequently receives scanned contracts that were never digitized correctly. Before, we had to rely on a couple of manual processes:
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Opening each PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro.
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Using the accessibility checker.
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Manually adding tags and fixing reading order.
It was slow, painful, and inconsistent.
With VeryPDF’s SDK, I automated that entire flow. I set up a batch job where scanned contracts got processed overnight. The tool ran OCR, added accessibility tags, checked for errors, and output clean, compliant PDFs the next day.
This freed up the legal team to focus on contract reviews rather than formatting hassles.
Why VeryPDF Stands Out Compared to Other Tools
I tested other OCR and accessibility tools along the way, but here’s what I noticed:
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Many OCR tools do a decent job extracting text but don’t handle tagging well, leaving accessibility a half-finished job.
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Some accessibility checkers give you reports but don’t fix anything, meaning you’re stuck doing the actual tagging manually.
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Few solutions combine OCR, tagging, compliance validation, and batch processing into one developer-friendly SDK that you can integrate and automate fully.
VeryPDF covers all those bases. Plus, their support for multi-language OCR is a game-changer in multinational legal environments.
Who Benefits Most from VeryPDF’s Accessibility Tagging
If you’re part of a legal team, a compliance officer, or a developer building document workflows for legal or government clients, this SDK is gold.
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Legal firms managing large volumes of scanned contracts and need to make them accessible and searchable.
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Compliance teams tasked with ensuring PDF accessibility for regulatory reasons.
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Developers building document management systems or automated workflows that require robust OCR and tagging capabilities.
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Government agencies needing to archive documents that comply with PDF/A and accessibility standards.
Key Advantages That Made a Difference
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Speed: Batch processing hundreds of documents overnight meant no bottlenecks.
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Accuracy: ABBYY’s OCR is top-tier, meaning less manual correction.
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Compliance-ready: Helps meet PDF/UA and WCAG standards, critical for accessibility mandates.
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Flexibility: Works well with multiple programming languages (Java, .NET, C++), making integration painless.
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Detailed Reporting: Helps track down specific issues so fixes are targeted and efficient.
Wrapping It Up
If you’re fed up with wasting time manually tagging legal documents for accessibility, I’d highly recommend giving VeryPDF PDF Solutions for Developers a serious look.
It solves practical problems by combining powerful OCR with automatic tagging and compliance validationhelping teams get more done faster while staying on the right side of accessibility regulations.
Ready to save hours on document processing and make your legal PDFs truly accessible?
Click here to try it out for yourself: https://www.verypdf.com/
Start your free trial now and boost your productivity.
Custom Development Services by VeryPDF
VeryPDF also offers tailored development services to suit specific technical needs across multiple platforms including Linux, macOS, Windows, and server environments.
Their expertise covers a wide range of technologies: Python, PHP, C/C++, Windows API, JavaScript, .NET, HTML5, iOS, Android, and more.
If you require custom PDF processing workflows, virtual printer drivers, advanced OCR and barcode recognition, or cloud-based solutions for document conversion, VeryPDF can build it.
They support complex tasks like:
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Intercepting and saving print jobs in various formats (PDF, TIFF, JPG, etc.).
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System-wide API hooking for document monitoring.
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Layout analysis and OCR table recognition.
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Secure digital signatures, DRM protection, and PDF/A archiving.
For tailored solutions, contact VeryPDF at their support centre: https://support.verypdf.com/
FAQ
Q1: Can VeryPDF automatically tag scanned PDFs for accessibility?
Yes, it uses advanced OCR combined with tagging features to make scanned PDFs fully accessible and compliant with PDF/UA standards.
Q2: What programming languages does VeryPDF SDK support?
It supports Java, .NET, C++, Python, and more, making integration flexible for various development environments.
Q3: How does VeryPDF handle large batches of documents?
The SDK is designed for scalability, enabling batch processing with automated accessibility checks and detailed reporting.
Q4: Is it possible to customize accessibility validation rules?
Yes, you can define custom thresholds and error handling rules to fit your compliance workflows.
Q5: Does VeryPDF provide support for multilingual OCR?
Absolutely, it supports multiple languages ensuring accurate text extraction from global documents.
Tags:
#PDFAccessibility #LegalDocumentProcessing #OCRforPDFs #VeryPDFSDK #PDFCompliance