Your PDFs are probably not accessible.

No. The free check runs entirely in your browser; the PDF never leaves your computer. Fixing a document does mean sending it to us. It's processed automatically, validated before delivery, and deleted after 7 days.

A PDF that looks fine to sighted readers is usually just ink positioned on a page. A screen reader can't tell a heading from a footnote, doesn't know what order two columns should be read in, and says nothing at all for images. An accessible (“tagged”) PDF carries an invisible layer of structure: headings, paragraphs, lists, tables with proper header cells, reading order, image descriptions, and document language. That layer is what assistive technology, and the PDF/UA standard regulators point to, actually reads.

In the EU, the European Accessibility Act has been enforced since June 28, 2025: businesses serving EU consumers must make their digital content, including PDFs, accessible, with fines that reach hundreds of thousands of euros or a percentage of revenue depending on the country. In the US, the ADA and Section 508 drive the same requirement for businesses, universities, and anyone working with government. If you publish PDFs customers are meant to read, this applies to you.

Your layout is preserved exactly. We measure it, and not a single word changes position. The accessibility layer itself is invisible, so in almost every case the file is pixel-for-pixel identical. The one exception: if your document referenced a font it never actually embedded (common, and it means every reader was already substituting something different), we embed a metrically identical replacement. Spacing and line breaks stay put; letter shapes can differ very slightly. That trade makes the file render consistently everywhere instead of differently on every machine.

Two files: your document with the full accessibility layer added, and a validation report checking it against the PDF/UA standard, the same class of check auditors run. The report is yours to file, forward to your compliance team, or hand to whoever is asking.

Pages attach to the email address you bought them with, on our side, and they never expire. On the browser you purchased from, they apply automatically when you upload. On any other device, upload as normal: when your document passes, the delivery email includes a use-your-pages button, and every receipt shows your remaining balance.

Yes, at a flat $4 a page, card only. A scan is a photograph of paper with no text in it, so we run text recognition first, then tag and validate it like any other document, and the same rule holds: it passes validation or you owe nothing. If recognition cannot find enough readable text, we tell you and stop. Drop the file in the checker and it will tell you which kind you have.

Acrobat Pro has an auto-tag feature, but Adobe's own guidance is that its output must be manually reviewed and corrected, which is why remediation shops charging $5–8 per page exist. Spotlight's job is the whole loop: add the layer, validate it against the standard, and hand you the report that proves it.

Your document passes PDF/UA-1 validation (ISO 14289-1, verified with veraPDF, the open-source reference validator auditors use) or you aren't charged. We run that validation before you pay, so we already know the outcome. That covers untagged documents and tagged ones we repair alike. Two honest limits: it's a conformance guarantee against a named validator version (stamped on your report), not a legal opinion; and no validator can judge whether a description is well written, so we don't warrant wording. Scanned files go through text recognition first at $4 a page flat, card only; the free checker tells you which you have.

$2 a page, and less in volume: $1.50 a page from 100 pages, $1.25 from 500, $1 from 1,000. A 12-page report is $24, a 40-page handbook is $80. There is nothing else to know: no credits, no packs, no rounding, no minimum. If a bigger block happens to be cheaper than your exact page count, we charge the cheaper one and the spare pages go on your account, where they never expire. You pay after validation, never before: if the document doesn't pass, nothing is delivered and nothing is charged. And if your document turns out to already be conformant, we say so, attach the stamped validation report, and charge nothing at all. Scanned documents are the one exception: text recognition first, $4 a page flat, card only.