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

Not affiliated with or endorsed by University of Illinois Chicago. 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 graduation. Failing work is sent back.

The rule, in the school's words

Beginning with submissions for Spring 2026 graduation, all UIC theses and dissertations must comply with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA standards. To demonstrate compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA, all UIC thesis and dissertation submissions must pass an accessibility check.

Any work that fails an accessibility check will be sent back to the author for remediation.

If you are using LaTeX and do not wish to use the new template/submit an ePub version, your PDF version will be required to pass an accessibility check. […] Your PDF may require extensive remediation to pass an accessibility check.

What it checks

• Word theses are checked as PDFs with Adobe Acrobat's accessibility checker.
• The PDF needs a document title and a document language.
• Structure must come from Word's styles, and the reading order must be logical (UIC notes image tags often end up at the bottom of a page and must be moved).
• Every figure needs descriptive alt text that fully explains it.
• Lists, columns and the table of contents must be built with Word's own features. Space paragraphs with paragraph settings, not empty returns.
• Tables need a simple structure, a clear title or description, and header rows.
• Contrast: 4.5:1 for text and 3:1 for informative figures. Don't use colour alone to carry meaning. Complex figures that can't reach the ratio need a long description.
• LaTeX theses: UIC asks you to use its accessible LaTeX template and submit both a PDF and an ePub. The ePub must show zero violations on the WCAG 2.0 and WCAG 2.1 A and AA lines of the Ace by DAISY report.

Deadlines we know

We haven't recorded UIC's dates for your term. Check them with the Graduate College before you plan around ours.

Dates change; confirm them with your graduate school.

How to pass it for free

Help UIC offers

• No Acrobat? UIC points you to its Virtual Computer Lab, or you can book the computer in University Hall 613 (Mondays to Wednesdays, 10am to 3pm, one-hour slots). That computer also has Ace by DAISY for the ePub check.
• UIC's Word thesis template and the accessible LaTeX template (GitHub and Overleaf versions) are linked from the source page.
• UIC's Thesis and Dissertation Specialist answers questions about the requirement (contact on the source page).

Worth knowing

For a Word thesis, the list above is the whole job, and many students can do it with the free steps below.

ePub: we haven't yet tested producing an ePub that passes Ace. If you need one, say so in your request and we'll tell you before you pay whether we can deliver it.

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 UIC'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 UIC thesis

Sources

Checked 2026-10-29:

• Document Accessibility for Theses and Dissertations (UIC Graduate College)