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Check
QCDoc evaluates a PDF against the standards procurement and disability services already cite. The report is plain-language and ties every finding to the clause it fails.
Accessible Documents Initiative
Accessible academic documents for the Global South.
Many academic PDFs do not work for students who read with a screen reader, text-to-speech, or large print. We check each document, repair what software cannot, send the readable file back, and train your team to take the work in-house. It is free for any student, faculty member, or library staff who needs it, free for government teams, and cost-only for institutions with no profit added.
01 Why we exist
The accessibility supply chain stops short of the students who need it.
Major academic publishers already produce accessible versions of their files, because law in the United States and Europe lets Western universities demand the tagged, screen-reader-ready file. In a Global South institution the picture is different. Most prescribed reading is hardcopy with no digital twin, and the digital files that do circulate often arrive without tags, without alt text, or as a print-image scan with no text layer. A student with a print disability finds out the document is unreadable only after it has been set.
The right to demand the accessible file already exists on paper. India's Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016 sets the floor. What is missing is the workflow that closes the gap while procurement catches up. EquitableDocs is built to be that workflow.
02 What we do
One workflow, instead of four jobs in four places.
An institution that wants accessibility today has to project-manage four separate jobs, each with a different party on a different timeline. EquitableDocs holds them in one place.
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Repair and deliver
We take on what automation cannot do: STEM equations and MathML, complex diagrams, scanned PDFs with no text layer, meaningful alt text, Indic-script OCR. The corrected file comes back through the same workflow that produced the report, so you are not assembling outputs from three vendors and a volunteer.
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Train
Faculty authors, library staff, disability-services coordinators, and procurement teams work through your own backlog with us, so the institution runs the loop on its own within 12 to 18 months.
Six tools surface this workflow. QCDoc is the one to start with. See all six tools
03 Who we partner with
Three ways in, by the kind of partner you are.
The student is the reason. The partner is what makes scale possible. Pick the route that fits.
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Universities and libraries
Public and private, central and state. We make assigned reading accessible and train your library, faculty, and disability-services teams to run the work in-house. Free for students, faculty, and library staff. Institutional batches at cost only, no profit added.
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Government teams
State and central departments, directorates of education, and public bodies whose documents the public must be able to read. We run awareness sessions, train your staff, and remediate your existing documents. For government, all of this is at no cost.
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NGO partners
Disability NGOs, DPOs, and resource centres serving readers with print disabilities. We make your documents accessible and share the methods, as collaborators, at no charge.
Students, faculty, and library staff do not need an institution to take part. Send us a document
04 How we work
Non-commercial, and verifiable against five standards.
EquitableDocs is non-commercial. Students, faculty, library staff, and government teams pay nothing. Training and pipeline setup are free. Institutional remediation is charged at cost only, with no profit margin. There are no per-page prices on this site, because we do not quote before seeing the document, the language, and the work it actually needs.
Every report carries a verdict against five standards on the cover page, with each finding cited to the clause it fails: WCAG 2.2 Level AA, PDF/UA-1, EN 301 549, GIGW 3.0, and the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016.
05 Questions
Frequently asked.
- Is EquitableDocs a tool, a service, or a programme?
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All three, held together. QCDoc is the tool you can use directly. We handle the repair work automation cannot finish. The training turns the first two into a finite engagement, so the institution ends up running it without us. You choose how much of the workflow to use at any time.
- Where do you operate?
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India is the first country of operation. The standards coverage and the workflow are built for any Global South institution that procures academic content from international publishers. Conversations with universities and consortia in other Global South regions are open.
- Is it really free, and what does cost-only mean?
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Students, faculty, library staff, and government teams pay nothing. For institutional partners, cost-only means the price covers running costs: servers and hosting, STEM and math processing, automated tagging, and related infrastructure. It does not include profit, marketing, or sales commission. The transparency page sets out the categories.
06 Contact us
Tell us where to start.
We are working with a small group of universities, government teams, libraries, and disability-services offices in the first phase. Use the form to start a conversation: a check of one document or a wider set, a request to make specific documents accessible, or training to bring the work in-house.