---
title: "Comparison of Accessibility features of Acrobat Pro DC, Nitro PDF Pro and Equidox"
canonical: "https://kb.uconn.edu/space/IKB/28043640879/Comparison%20of%20Accessibility%20features%20of%20Acrobat%20Pro%20DC%2C%20Nitro%20PDF%20Pro%20and%20Equidox"
format: markdown
---
##  **Summary**

### **Adobe Acrobat Pro DC**

- Positive: Industry standard; detailed control of headings, lists, links, tables, images, and reading order; compliance-ready when used by experts
- Negative: Steep learning curve; highly manual; not efficient for bulk remediation

### **Nitro PDF**

- Positive: Simple to use for general PDF editing
- Negative: Very limited accessibility features; not suitable for compliance-grade remediation

### **Equidox**

- Positive: Purpose-built for accessibility; AI-driven automation; scalable for large volumes; user-friendly cloud interface
- Negative: Automation still requires human review for complex documents; overkill for occasional needs

|  |  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **Feature** | **Adobe Acrobat Pro DC** | **Nitro PDF Pro** | **Equidox** |
| **Heading Structure** | Full manual control; define heading levels (H1–H6) in tags tree; highly accurate but slow | Very limited; no dedicated heading structuring i.e. Nitro can style headings visually, but **cannot create true accessible heading tags** | Automatic detection from text size/style; editable by user |
| **Lists** | Manual tagging supported (ordered/unordered); requires careful tagging | Weak; lists are often treated as plain text | Automatic detection of bullet/numbered lists; user can adjust |
| **Links** | Fully supported; proper OBJR references and alt/expansion text can be added | Nitro creates clickable links, but does not apply proper accessibility tags | Automatically detects links; users can add/edit descriptions |
| **Tables** | Advanced manual tools; can define headers, scope, spanning — highly accurate but labor-intensive | Poor; tables often not tagged properly, may flatten into text | Automatic detection of rows/columns; editable via table editor |
| **Reading Order** | Manual control with Reading Order Tool and tags tree; accurate but time-consuming | Weak; lacks a visual “drag-and-drop” reading order panel where you can reorder regions by number. Can only reorder tags manually in the Tag tree | Automatic AI-based reading order; users can quickly adjust |
| **Images (Alt Text)** | Strong; full manual control of alt text and decorative flags | Basic; can add alt text but lacks advanced control e.g. no option for tagging as Artifact. | AI-suggested alt text; bulk editing; easy decorative marking |
| **Forms (Interactive)** | Strong; manual tagging of fields, tooltips, tab order; compliance-ready | Very limited; can create forms but lacks accessibility tagging | Cannot create or remediate forms at all; forms remain **inaccessible** must be handled elsewhere. |
| **Metadata & Document Properties** | Full control (title, language, tagging root) | Limited metadata editing; weak accessibility tagging | Auto-sets language, title, and root tags |
| **Tagged Annotations / Bookmarks** | Can ensure annotations and bookmarks are tagged properly | Weak annotation tagging; bookmarks often unstructured | Auto-detects and tags bookmarks; annotation support limited |
| **Color Contrast / Non-Text** | Checker available, but cannot auto-fix | No contrast checking | No contrast checking (external tools required) |
| **Equations / Math Content** | Can add descriptive alt text; does not support MathML | Not supported | Allows alt text; no semantic math markup |
| **Language Support** | Full document + passage-level language support | Limited support | Document-level language tagging |
| **Compliance Checking** | Built-in checker for WCAG/508/PDF/UA; widely used in industry | No compliance checker | Built-in compliance reporting with QA export |
| **Batch Processing / Scalability** | One file at a time; no batch remediation | Has some batch operations, but mostly **basic tasks.** Not designed for accessibility batch work | Designed for batch processing and automation at enterprise scale |