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Georgia Tech thesis accessibility requirement: what it checks and how to pass

Not affiliated with or endorsed by Georgia Institute of Technology. This guide quotes the school's public pages; if anything here differs from them, the school's pages win.

In short: In force since Spring 2026. Work that isn't fully accessible is returned.

The rule, in the school's words

Beginning Spring 2026, all theses and dissertations must be fully accessible

Any theses or dissertations not fully accessible will be returned for correction.

Make sure all source documentation (i.e., Word, LaTeX, etc.) has passed basic accessibility checks before converting it to a PDF and uploading it into the repository. You should also complete a final accessibility check by running an accessibility report in Adobe.

What it checks

• The manual says accessible documents “typically include properly tagged headings, alternative text for images, readable tables, and other features that support screen readers and assistive technologies.”
• Source files (Word, LaTeX) should pass basic accessibility checks before you convert to PDF.
• A final check: run an accessibility report in Adobe Acrobat.
• The slides say a full guide for Word, and later LaTeX, is still being drafted.

Deadlines we know

• Fall 2026: thesis and required forms due (MS and Ph.D.) December 11, 2026 at noon. (source, checked 2026-10-29)
• Spring 2027: thesis and required forms due (MS and Ph.D.) April 30, 2027 at noon. (source, checked 2026-10-29)

The page notes: “All dates subject to change”.

Dates change; confirm them with your graduate school.

How to pass it for free

Help Georgia Tech offers

• The Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation (CIDI) provides a basic accessibility requirements worksheet and answers accessibility questions (cidi.gatech.edu).
• The Graduate Education thesis coordinator offers virtual appointments about the thesis process.

Worth knowing

Georgia Tech's written guidance is short and its LaTeX guidance isn't out yet. If you write in LaTeX, the free LaTeX steps below are the best current route.

Do it yourself

In Word

1. Start from your school's Word template if it has one.
2. Make every heading with Word's built-in styles (Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3), not with bold or bigger text. Use Word's own list buttons and Insert, Table of Contents.
3. Make tables with Insert, Table. Give each a header row: select the first row, then Table Properties, Row, “Repeat as header row at the top of each page”. Don't use tabs or spaces to line things up, and don't paste tables as pictures.
4. Add alt text to every figure: right-click it, then View Alt Text (or Edit Alt Text). Describe what the figure shows and why it matters. Mark purely decorative images as decorative.
5. Set the document title (File, Info, Properties, Title) and the language (Review, Language).
6. Run Review, Check Accessibility and fix what it lists.
7. Save as PDF, not Print to PDF, because printing drops the tags. On Windows: File, Save As, PDF, Options, and keep “Document structure tags for accessibility” ticked. On a Mac: File, Save As, PDF, and choose “Best for electronic distribution and accessibility”.

In LaTeX

1. Use a recent TeX Live (2025 or later; we used 2026) and compile with LuaLaTeX.
2. Put this before \documentclass. It is what we used on the LaTeX example below:

   \DocumentMetadata{
     lang=en-US,
     pdfversion=1.7,
     pdfstandard=ua-1,
     tagging=on,
     testphase={phase-III,math,title,table,firstaid}
   }

3. Give the PDF a title: \hypersetup{pdftitle={Your title}, pdfdisplaydoctitle=true}.
4. Add alt text to each figure: \includegraphics[alt={What the figure shows}]{file}.
5. Mark table header rows, for example \tagpdfsetup{table/header-rows={1}} before a table whose first row is its header.
6. Check that your packages work with tagging on the LaTeX Project's tagging status page. Some (TikZ wrappers, custom floats) need workarounds.

Check the result

• Adobe Acrobat Pro: Accessibility, Accessibility Check. Many schools check with this, and campus labs often have it.
• PAC (PDF Accessibility Checker): free, Windows only. NDSU treats it as authoritative.
• veraPDF: free and open source on every platform. It checks PDF/UA.
• Word's Check Accessibility only checks the .docx. Always check the final PDF too.

Or we fix it for you

If you'd rather not do it yourself, we fix the structure of your thesis without changing a word you wrote, and send a validator report with every order.

If Georgia Tech's checker rejects your thesis for an item we fixed, we refund you in full. Our checks are veraPDF (PDF/UA) plus our own implementation of Acrobat's published rules, not Acrobat itself. We report what checkers say; that isn't legal advice. Guarantee details.

Some schools have rules on third-party help or AI use. Check with your advisor or graduate school first.

Checkout isn't open yet, so you pay nothing now. The first 3 requests get the fix free, in exchange for honest feedback. We won't ask for a testimonial.

Request a fix for a Georgia Tech thesis

Sources

Checked 2026-10-29:

• Spring 2026 Thesis Information Session slides (Georgia Tech Graduate Education)
• Thesis and Dissertation Manual, April 2026 (Georgia Tech)
• Theses and Dissertations: Deadlines (Georgia Tech Graduate Education)