Editing Your PDF and Resolving Accessibility Issues
After you convert a PDF, the preview page lets you edit the resulting HTML directly and re-check it for accessibility. This guide explains how editing, re-validation, version history, and the manual review (override) workflow fit together.
What happens when you edit
The preview page renders your converted document inside an editable area. As you type, the app continuously watches for changes. About three seconds after you stop typing, the accessibility panel re-checks your document and updates the list of issues. This re-check is fast, free, and runs locally — it does not call any external AI service or charge anything extra.
If you click Save, your current version is written to storage and a snapshot of the prior version is kept in your file’s version history.
Saving and version history
Saving is straightforward:
| Action | What happens |
|---|---|
| Save | Stores the current HTML. The previous version is snapshotted automatically. |
| Version history | Shows the last 20 saved versions for this file. |
| Restore | Brings back any prior version. The current state is snapshotted first, so a restore is itself reversible. |
We retain the last 20 versions per file. Older versions are pruned automatically as new saves are made. If you need to keep a specific milestone for longer, export the HTML or the PDF before continuing.
When to click “Refresh PDF”
Editing the HTML changes what you’d download as the accessible PDF, but the new PDF isn’t built on every keystroke. When you’re happy with a set of edits, click Refresh PDF. This:
- Regenerates the accessible PDF from your current HTML.
- Runs the formal PDF/UA conformance check.
- Updates the official accessibility score shown on your dashboard and in the conformance report.
The live accessibility panel inside the editor always shows the up-to-date count of issues — but the score on your file’s dashboard card only refreshes when you click Refresh PDF. That separation is intentional: the live panel reflects your current edits, the dashboard score reflects your last published PDF.
Reading the accessibility panel
The panel on the right of the editor groups issues into tabs:
- Violations — Issues the checker is confident about. These reduce your score.
- Warnings — Issues the checker isn’t fully certain about. They don’t reduce your score but are worth reviewing.
- Reviewed — Issues you’ve marked as reviewed using the override controls below. Visible whenever at least one override exists for the file.
Each row shows the issue description, an impact badge (Critical / Serious / Moderate / Minor), and how many elements are affected. Click a row to jump to the affected element in the editor.
Manual overrides: marking an issue as reviewed
Automated checkers are conservative. They sometimes flag patterns that are actually correct, or that don’t apply to your document. When that happens, you don’t have to leave the issue showing as a failure forever. You can record a manual override with a short justification, and the issue moves to the Reviewed tab.
Every override requires a written justification. This is what shows up in the conformance report so an auditor can see why you decided each item was acceptable.
The four decision types
| Decision | When to use it | Affects your score? |
|---|---|---|
| Resolved | You fixed it; the checker is wrong about it still failing. Example: contrast ratio that the tool measured incorrectly because of a background gradient. | Lifts the score |
| Not Applicable | The rule doesn’t apply to this element. Example: a company logo is exempt from contrast rules; a decorative image doesn’t need alt text. | Lifts the score |
| False Positive | The tool flagged something that isn’t actually a problem. Example: a heading-level skip the tool dislikes but that reflects the source document’s structure. | Lifts the score |
| Accepted (Won’t Fix) | You know about it and have decided not to fix it (e.g., you’ll fix it in the source PDF instead, or it’s tracked as known debt). | Does not lift the score — stays visible |
The reason “Accepted (Won’t Fix)” doesn’t help your score is intentional: known-but-unfixed issues should remain visible in your grade and in the conformance report. The override exists to document the decision, not to hide it.
Instant overrides for common cases
For the most frequent situations, the panel offers one-click “instant overrides” with a pre-written justification. Some highlights:
- Image is decorative — for images that purely decorate the layout. See the next section — there’s a better option first.
- Alt text reviewed — accurate — for images where you’ve checked the alt text and it correctly describes the picture.
- Link purpose is clear from context — for short link text like “more” where the surrounding sentence makes the destination obvious.
- Icon button has accessible name elsewhere — for icon-only buttons whose name is provided via
aria-label. - Logotype — exempt from contrast — for company or brand text that doesn’t have to meet contrast.
- Contrast verified manually — when you measured the actual rendered contrast and it passes, but the automated tool was thrown off by a background image or gradient.
- Heading level skip is intentional — when the heading hierarchy matches the source document’s structure.
- Will be fixed in source PDF — when you’re going to fix the underlying source instead of editing this output.
Click an instant override to apply it. The issue moves to the Reviewed tab. You can undo any override later.
The “decorative image” recommendation
When an image flagged for missing alt text is genuinely decorative, you’ll see two options stacked together on that issue:
- Mark decorative in HTML (recommended) — a primary blue button. This directly edits your HTML to mark the image as decorative (sets the alt attribute to empty and adds the proper accessibility role). The issue disappears on its own at the next re-check because the HTML itself is now correct.
- Mark reviewed… — the standard override flow as a fallback.
We recommend the first option whenever possible. Fixing the HTML to express your intent makes the document itself conformant, which is better than relying on a side-record explaining why a “failure” should be ignored.
Undoing an override
Open the Reviewed tab. Each row shows the issue, the decision you recorded, the justification, who recorded it, and when. Click Undo override to revoke it. The issue returns to the active Violations or Warnings tab where you can address it again or apply a different override.
Revoked overrides are not deleted — they are kept in the audit log so the history of decisions remains intact for compliance purposes.
What ends up in the Accessibility Conformance Report
When you generate or download the conformance report (ACR) for this file, a Manually Reviewed Findings section is included whenever you have any active overrides. For each one, the report lists:
- The rule identifier and WCAG criterion
- A short description of the check and the affected element
- Your decision (Resolved / Not Applicable / False Positive / Accepted (Won’t Fix))
- Your full justification text
- Who recorded the decision and on what date
This is the standard format an accessibility auditor or procurement reviewer expects when reading a VPAT-style report. It shows that the failures the automated checker reported were actually evaluated by a human, with reasoning, and not silently dropped.
FAQ
Why didn’t my score change after I edited the HTML?
The score shown on your file’s dashboard card and in the conformance report is computed when you click Refresh PDF. The live panel inside the editor reflects your edits immediately, but the official score waits for a refresh so it always corresponds to a real, downloadable PDF.
I overrode an issue, but after editing it came back. Why?
An override is tied to the specific element it was recorded for. If you later edited that element (or the surrounding markup) enough that it no longer looks the same to our matcher, the override is treated as orphaned and the issue re-appears. This is intentional — your override said “this specific finding is fine”; once the underlying content changes, the override shouldn’t silently carry over to something different. Re-apply the override (or address the issue) if it’s still appropriate.
Can I undo an override?
Yes. Open the Reviewed tab and click Undo override on the row. The issue returns to the active list. The revoke is recorded in the audit log so the full history is preserved.
Do overrides cost anything extra?
No. Recording an override is free. Re-validation after edits is also free — it runs locally and does not call any AI service. The only thing that costs credits is generating a fresh accessible PDF (Refresh PDF) and your original conversion.
Can I bulk-override every issue of a certain type?
Not from the panel today — overrides are per-element so each one carries its own justification. If you find yourself overriding many instances of the same rule for the same reason, that’s a signal that either the source document needs a structural fix (better to address once at the source) or the automated check is producing systematic false positives for your content (worth flagging to support).
Will my overrides survive a Refresh PDF?
Yes. Overrides are stored against the file, not the PDF. Refreshing the PDF re-runs the structural conformance checks but does not touch your override list.