Blank checklist, printable form

Matterhorn Protocol, PDF/UA Compliance Checklist

ISO 14289-1 Compliance Checklist

Blank checklist for offline completion.

Tick one box per row. Add comments and evidence references in the Notes column as needed.

Document Structure & Tags

Matterhorn §01–§06, Tagged structure, content containment, and heading hierarchy.

Ref	Severity	Requirement	Status
Matterhorn §01-001	Critical	Document is a tagged PDF.The PDF must have its 'Tagged' flag set to true in the document catalog. Without tagging, assistive technologies cannot interpret the document structure at all.	☐ Pass ☐ Partial ☐ FAIL ☐ N/A
Matterhorn §01-003	Critical	All content is contained within the structure tree.Every piece of meaningful content (text, images, form fields) must be inside a structure element in the tag tree. Content outside the tag tree is invisible to assistive technologies.	☐ Pass ☐ Partial ☐ FAIL ☐ N/A
Matterhorn §02-001	Major	Correct tag nesting, P tags inside Section, not inside Table.The structure tree must follow logical nesting rules defined by PDF/UA. Paragraph tags belong inside Section or similar grouping elements, never directly inside Table or Table Row elements.	☐ Pass ☐ Partial ☐ FAIL ☐ N/A
Matterhorn §01-004	Critical	No content exists outside the tag structure (orphan content).Content that is neither tagged nor marked as an Artifact is 'orphan content'. All content must be explicitly assigned: meaningful content gets tagged, decorative content gets marked as Artifact.	☐ Pass ☐ Partial ☐ FAIL ☐ N/A
Matterhorn §06-001	Major	Heading tags (H1–H6) reflect the document's logical hierarchy.The heading structure in the tag tree must mirror the document's logical outline. Headings must not skip levels. Numbered heading tags (H1–H6) are preferred over the generic H tag.	☐ Pass ☐ Partial ☐ FAIL ☐ N/A

Reading Order & Artifacts

Matterhorn §07–§09, Logical reading sequence, artifact handling, and tab order.

Ref	Severity	Requirement	Status
Matterhorn §07-001	Critical	Reading order in the tag tree matches the intended visual layout.The order of elements in the tag tree determines the order in which a screen reader will read the content. Multi-column layouts are particularly prone to reading-order errors.	☐ Pass ☐ Partial ☐ FAIL ☐ N/A
Matterhorn §08-001	Major	Decorative elements are marked as Artifact (not tagged as content).Decorative borders, background images, watermarks, and purely visual elements must be marked as Artifacts so assistive technologies ignore them.	☐ Pass ☐ Partial ☐ FAIL ☐ N/A
Matterhorn §08-002	Major	Page numbers, headers, and footers are marked as Artifact.Running headers, footers, and page numbers are repeated on every page and should be marked as Artifacts. If tagged as content, screen readers will read them between every page.	☐ Pass ☐ Partial ☐ FAIL ☐ N/A
Matterhorn §07-002	Minor	No empty tags exist in the structure tree.Empty structure elements serve no purpose and can cause unexpected pauses or blank announcements in screen readers.	☐ Pass ☐ Partial ☐ FAIL ☐ N/A
Matterhorn §09-001	Major	Tab order follows the document's structure tag order.When a user presses Tab to navigate between interactive elements, the focus order must follow the logical structure defined by the tag tree.	☐ Pass ☐ Partial ☐ FAIL ☐ N/A

Images & Alternative Text

Matterhorn §13–§14, Figure tags, alt text, and images of text.

Ref	Severity	Requirement	Status
Matterhorn §13-001	Critical	All Figure tags have alternative text (Alt attribute).Every image tagged as a Figure element must have an Alt attribute containing a concise text description.	☐ Pass ☐ Partial ☐ FAIL ☐ N/A
Matterhorn §13-003	Major	Decorative images are marked as Artifacts, not tagged as Figures.Images that serve no informational purpose must be marked as Artifacts. Tagging them as Figure elements forces screen reader users to listen to meaningless descriptions.	☐ Pass ☐ Partial ☐ FAIL ☐ N/A
Matterhorn §13-004	Major	Complex images have a long description or associated accessible content.Charts, diagrams, infographics require more than a brief Alt attribute. Provide a long description, a linked accessible data table, or a dedicated description section.	☐ Pass ☐ Partial ☐ FAIL ☐ N/A
Matterhorn §14-002	Major	Images of text are replaced with real text wherever possible.Text rendered as an image cannot be resized, recoloured, or read reliably by screen readers. Unless essential (e.g., a logo), text content must be real tagged text.	☐ Pass ☐ Partial ☐ FAIL ☐ N/A
Matterhorn §13-002	Critical	Alternative text is meaningful, not a filename or placeholder.Alt text must convey the purpose and content of the image in context. Filenames, generic labels like 'image' or 'photo', and auto-generated text are not meaningful alternatives.	☐ Pass ☐ Partial ☐ FAIL ☐ N/A

Tables & Lists

Matterhorn §15–§19, Table header cells, scope, merged cells, and list structure.

Ref	Severity	Requirement	Status
Matterhorn §15-001	Critical	Tables use TH (header) and TD (data) cells correctly.Data tables must distinguish header cells (TH) from data cells (TD). Without this distinction, screen readers cannot announce column or row headers when navigating the table.	☐ Pass ☐ Partial ☐ FAIL ☐ N/A
Matterhorn §15-003	Major	Header cells have a Scope attribute indicating column or row.Each TH cell should have a Scope attribute set to 'Column', 'Row', or 'Both' to explicitly define which data cells it labels.	☐ Pass ☐ Partial ☐ FAIL ☐ N/A
Matterhorn §15-005	Major	Merged cells use the Headers attribute to reference their header cells.When table cells span multiple rows or columns, merged data cells must use the Headers attribute to explicitly associate them with the correct headers.	☐ Pass ☐ Partial ☐ FAIL ☐ N/A
Matterhorn §17-001	Major	Lists use L, LI, Lbl, and LBody tags in correct structure.Ordered and unordered lists must use the standard PDF list tags. Using P tags with bullet characters instead of proper list tags prevents screen readers from identifying the content as a list.	☐ Pass ☐ Partial ☐ FAIL ☐ N/A
Matterhorn §19-001	Minor	Nested tables are avoided, flat table structure preferred.Tables nested inside other table cells create extremely complex structures that are very difficult for screen readers to navigate.	☐ Pass ☐ Partial ☐ FAIL ☐ N/A

Metadata, Language & Fonts

Matterhorn §26–§31, Document title, language declarations, font embedding, and PDF/UA identifier.

Ref	Severity	Requirement	Status
Matterhorn §28-001	Major	Document title is set in metadata (not displaying filename as title).The PDF must have a descriptive Title field in its metadata, and the Initial View settings must display the document title, not the filename.	☐ Pass ☐ Partial ☐ FAIL ☐ N/A
Matterhorn §26-001	Critical	Language is declared at the document level.The PDF must have a Lang attribute set at the document level specifying the primary language. Without this, screen readers cannot select the correct text-to-speech voice.	☐ Pass ☐ Partial ☐ FAIL ☐ N/A
Matterhorn §26-002	Major	Language changes are marked on individual content spans.When a document contains passages in a different language from the document-level language, those spans must be tagged with their own Lang attribute.	☐ Pass ☐ Partial ☐ FAIL ☐ N/A
Matterhorn §30-001	Critical	All fonts are embedded, no system font reliance.Every font used in the PDF must be fully embedded or subset-embedded. If a font is not embedded, the PDF viewer substitutes a different font, which can alter character mapping.	☐ Pass ☐ Partial ☐ FAIL ☐ N/A
Matterhorn §31-001	Critical	PDF/UA identifier is present in XMP metadata.A PDF/UA-compliant document must declare its conformance by including the PDF/UA identifier (pdfuaid:part = 1) in the XMP metadata stream.	☐ Pass ☐ Partial ☐ FAIL ☐ N/A