What We Do
An untagged PDF is not merely inconvenient. For a student who relies on a screen reader, it is a locked door. For a person with a learning disability or intellectual disability, a dense, unformatted document is an equally impassable barrier. EquitableDocs exists to remove both.
We provide free document accessibility remediation and Easy Read conversion for persons with disabilities across the Global South. Our services address two distinct but equally critical information barriers identified under UNCRPD Articles 9, 21, and 24:
Screen reader accessible formats — for students with blindness or low vision who use assistive technologies such as screen readers, refreshable braille displays, and text-to-speech software. We remediate documents to meet WCAG 2.1 AA and PDF/UA standards: proper structural tagging, logical reading order, alternative text for images, MathML for mathematical content, and validated compatibility with JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack.
Easy Read formats — for persons with learning disabilities and intellectual disabilities who face barriers when information is presented in complex language, dense layouts, or abstract structures. We convert academic and institutional documents into Easy Read versions following international Easy Read guidelines: clear and simple language, short sentences, one idea per sentence, meaningful images supporting the text, and accessible page layouts with generous spacing.
Students upload their inaccessible academic documents — textbooks, exam papers, government forms, research articles — and receive accessible versions delivered to their email and WhatsApp, at no cost. Our pipeline combines enterprise-grade automation with expert human review, processing documents through AI-powered auto-tagging, OCR for scanned materials in over 100 languages, mathematical content recognition for STEM textbooks, and validation against international accessibility standards. An expert remediator reviews each document before delivery.
EquitableDocs is the flagship platform of the Document Equity initiative — a commitment to ensuring that persons with disabilities are not excluded from the educational materials, public information, and institutional documents they have every right to access, as affirmed by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
How It Works
A simple, transparent process from upload to delivery. You tell us what you need — a screen reader accessible version, an Easy Read version, or both — and we handle the rest. Every request receives a tracking ID to monitor progress.
Upload
Upload your document through our portal or send it via email. We accept PDFs, Word documents, PowerPoint files, and scanned images in any language. Tell us whether you need screen reader accessible format, Easy Read format, or both.
Process
For screen reader formats: OCR extraction for scanned materials, AI-powered structure tagging, mathematical content recognition, and automated accessibility validation. For Easy Read: content simplification, clear language conversion, meaningful image selection, and accessible layout generation.
Review
An expert remediator reviews the automated output. Screen reader formats are validated against WCAG 2.1 AA and PDF/UA standards and tested with assistive technologies. Easy Read versions are reviewed for adherence to international Easy Read guidelines and clarity of communication.
Deliver
Your accessible document is delivered to your email and WhatsApp with a compliance report. Download it anytime from the portal using your tracking ID. All formats are yours to keep, share, and use without restriction.
Our Principles
“Nothing About Us Without Us.”
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Information accessibility is a human right, not a service. UNCRPD Article 9 obligates States Parties to ensure persons with disabilities can access information and communications on an equal basis with others. Article 21 affirms the right to receive information in accessible formats and technologies. Article 24 requires inclusive education with reasonable accommodation. India’s RPwD Act 2016, the European Accessibility Act, and the April 2025 Supreme Court judgment recognising digital access as a constitutional entitlement all reinforce these obligations. EquitableDocs exists because these rights are not yet realised for millions of persons with disabilities in the Global South.
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The Least Common Denominator as the point of departure. Every design decision starts with the most marginalised user — a student with blindness in a rural area using a basic screen reader on limited connectivity, or a person with an intellectual disability encountering a complex government form for the first time. If the service works for them, it works for everyone. We do not design for the easiest case and adapt downward; we design for the hardest case and build upward.
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Multiple formats for multiple barriers. Accessibility is not one thing. A screen reader accessible PDF with proper tags and alt-text serves persons with blindness or low vision. An Easy Read document with simplified language, short sentences, and supporting images serves persons with learning disabilities and intellectual disabilities. The same source document may need both formats. EquitableDocs treats every format as equally essential.
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Automation with human accountability. AI-powered remediation handles the bulk of structural processing, but every document passes through expert human review before reaching the person who requested it. Automated tools cannot yet judge whether alt-text meaningfully conveys a diagram’s purpose, or whether an Easy Read version preserves the original’s essential meaning. Human expertise ensures quality that technology alone cannot guarantee.
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Open-source, open-access. Our remediation pipeline is built on open-source tools — Tesseract, OCRmyPDF, veraPDF, PDFix SDK — and our code is developed transparently. Knowledge about document accessibility and Easy Read conversion should not be locked behind paywalls or restricted to the Global North.
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Free for persons with disabilities. Always. Commercial document remediation costs USD 3–4 per page. Professional Easy Read conversion costs even more. For persons with disabilities in the Global South, these costs mean inaccessible education, inaccessible public services, and inaccessible civic participation. EquitableDocs will never charge persons with disabilities for document remediation or Easy Read conversion services.
Languages and Formats We Support
EquitableDocs processes documents in over 100 languages across the Global South, using specialised OCR models trained for each script family. We produce screen reader accessible formats validated against international standards, and Easy Read versions that make complex information understandable for persons with learning disabilities and intellectual disabilities.
India — North
Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi
India — South
Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam
India — East
Bengali, Assamese, Odia
South Asia
Sinhala, Nepali, Dzongkha
Southeast Asia
Thai, Khmer, Lao, Burmese
East Africa
Swahili, Amharic, Tigrinya
West Africa
Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo
MENA
Arabic, Persian, Kurdish
STEM Content
Mathematical equations, LaTeX, MathML
Easy Read
Simplified language versions with supporting images, available in all supported languages
Get in Touch
Whether you are a person with a disability who needs a document made accessible or converted to Easy Read, a self-advocate, a Disabled People’s Organisation, an institution interested in partnering with the Document Equity initiative, or a developer who wants to contribute — we would like to hear from you.
Reach Us Directly
Email: deepa@equitabledocs.org
For persons with disabilities: Send us your document and tell us what format you need — screen reader accessible, Easy Read, or both. We will process it at no cost.
For Disabled People’s Organisations and support services: We welcome partnerships to reach persons with disabilities who need accessible information but do not know where to find it.
For institutions and funders: We welcome collaborations that advance document equity across the Global South. Reach out to discuss partnership with the Document Equity initiative.
For developers and accessibility specialists: EquitableDocs is built on open-source tools and we welcome contributors. Our code lives on GitHub.