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NDSU thesis accessibility requirement: what it checks and how to pass

Not affiliated with or endorsed by North Dakota State University. This guide quotes the school's public pages; if anything here differs from them, the school's pages win.

In short: Full WCAG 2.1 AA from January 1, 2027. A smaller set applies before that.

The rule, in the school's words

Beginning Jan 1, 2027, all WCAG 2.1 AA specifications will be required in your document.

This policy was introduced in Spring 2026, then subsequently paused for one year pursuant to the IFR issued by the US DOJ. Per this IFR, our digital accessibility requirements for disquisitions published by NDSU will resume Jan 1, 2027.

In conclusion, we recommend using PAC as the authoritative source of compliance issues in your document, but there are advantages to using other types of checkers.

What it checks

• Before Jan 1, 2027: document title, bookmarks, minimum text size and text colour contrast. A tagged PDF is not yet required.
• From Jan 1, 2027: all of WCAG 2.1 AA, including PDF structure tags, alt text for images and equations, table headers and table scope, and colour contrast.
• Inline equations, variables and symbols outside display equations should use Unicode characters.
• LaTeX: NDSU says to compile with the LuaTeX engine (LuaLaTeX).
• Check the final PDF with PAC (PDF Accessibility Checker). NDSU warns that Word's checker and PDF editors' built-in checkers miss things.

Deadlines we know

We haven't recorded NDSU's dates. The Key Dates section of the Disquisitions page lists them.

Dates change; confirm them with your graduate school.

How to pass it for free

Help NDSU offers

• Adobe Pro workstations are available on campus, including the Library 201 Data Visualization Lab (remote or in person) and the NDSU Virtual Lab.
• NDSU's Word and LaTeX templates handle part of the requirement. The page explains how to update templates downloaded before June 2026.
• The Disquisition Coordinator answers questions about the policy.

Worth knowing

PAC is free but runs only on Windows. We don't run PAC ourselves: our report uses veraPDF (PDF/UA) and our own implementation of Acrobat's rules. If PAC rejects your thesis for an item we fixed, the refund applies.

NDSU notes that some requirements, such as table scope in a Word thesis, can't be set in Word and need a PDF editor.

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 NDSU'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 NDSU thesis

Sources

Checked 2026-10-29:

• Document Accessibility (NDSU Disquisition Knowledge Base)
• Disquisitions (NDSU Graduate School)