I need an economical product to insert/remove pages and convert PDF to PDF/A-1a

Question

I need an economical product (under $100) to insert/remove pages and convert PDF to PDF/A-1a (or, if it can create PDF/A-1a directly from my scanner, that's good too). There's something for $50 but it only supports PDF/A-1b. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

As others point out, Acrobat is essential though a bit expensive. There are some very economical (i.e. free) tools that are extremely helpful in  properly tagging a PDF.
- PDF Accessibility Checker (PAC) 1.3 from the Swiss Foundation Access for All validates the PDF for WCAG 2.0 compliance (to the extent that validation can be automated). It is far more thorough than the feeble accessibility checker that comes with Acrobat, http://www.access-for-all.ch/en/pdf-lab/pdf-accessibility-checker-pac/dl132.html.
- PAC 1.3's successor, PAC 2.0 performs the same job for ISO 14289 compliance, http://www.access-for-all.ch/en/pdf-lab/pdf-accessibility-checker-pac/downloading-pac.html
- PDFgoHTML from Callas Software provides a convenient screen-reader view of the document using an Acrobat plug-in, http://www.callassoftware.com/callas/doku.php/en:download. Both PACs also provide screen-reader views, but it is handy to have an Acrobat plug-in that provides the view in a couple of clicks.