Tools
Six free web tools for document accessibility. The first three open immediately in your browser. The next two are in early preview. The sixth is in pilot with remediation teams.
Each tool is built so the people who use it can use it, including people who use screen readers themselves. To pilot, suggest a feature, or report a problem, email deepa@equitabledocs.org.
At a glance
Pick the tool that fits your task. Each card links to a fuller description further down the page.
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Open, ready to use
Screen reader experience demo
Hear how a blind student reads a document. Eleven side-by-side comparisons of accessible and inaccessible content, with real screen-reader audio. For workshops, talks, and self-study.
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Early access, in pilot
AltBridge
Subject experts describe images, remediators apply the descriptions. One private link per session. One CSV per response set. For image-heavy textbooks.
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Early preview
Document Accessibility Checker
Upload a PDF; receive a Word report, a defects CSV, and a JSON summary describing every accessibility issue. Plain language for non-experts; compliance-grade detail for procurement.
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Early preview
AccessMitra
Drop an inaccessible PDF; receive an accessible PDF, an accessible Word file, and an EPUB by email. Free for individuals. Affordable subscription for institutions.
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Open, ready to use
Font Auditor
A verdict for every font in your PDF, with a recommended replacement when one is needed. Run before publishing or compressing.
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Open, ready to use
Accessibility-Safe Compressor
Make your PDF smaller without breaking screen reader access, tags, alt text, or PDF/UA-1 compliance. Refuses unsafe files at the source.
Open, ready to use
Screen reader experience demo
A guided walk through how a blind student reads a document. Eleven side-by-side comparisons, each shown twice and read out by a Windows speech voice. Built for talks, workshops, and self-study by people who have never heard a screen reader before.
What you get
- Eight industry-standard accessibility failures demonstrated side by side: figures with no alt text, tables without row and column headers, headings that are only bigger bolder text, equations rendered as silent images, links that all read "click here", and more.
- Two play buttons per panel: real screen-reader speed (around 240 words a minute) and slow speed (around 150) so a sighted listener can catch every word.
- Plain text transcripts under every clip, with a short note on what changed between the two reads.
- Self-contained, works offline, no login. Built to be used during a live talk, with a sticky "Stop audio" bar.
Early access, in pilot
AltBridge
A browser tool that helps remediators and subject-matter experts agree on alt text for images. The remediator uploads a tagged PDF; the tool extracts each figure, drafts an AI suggestion, and creates a shareable link. The expert opens the link, confirms or rewrites each suggestion, and adds a note where guidance is needed. Responses export as one CSV the remediator loads back into their workflow.
What you get
- Every figure detected in the source PDF, including its current alt text when present, with a magenta highlight on the rendered page so the reviewer sees the figure in context.
- A plain-language alt text draft from Claude, with a verdict (match, ambiguous, mismatch), confidence, and reasoning.
- Approve, rewrite, or skip each figure. Responses save in the browser as you work.
- Exports as a CSV; also produces an accessible Word file with the reviewed alt text embedded on each figure.
- Works end-to-end with a screen reader. Visible labels, keyboard operation, colour-supported announcements.
Upload your own PDF Read about the tool Try the sample demo Back to all tools
Early preview
Document Accessibility Checker
A free accessibility audit for the documents your students rely on. Upload a PDF; receive a Word report, a defects CSV, a JSON summary, and a tracking ID. Plain language for non-experts; compliance-grade detail for procurement. Last-mile remediation by the Accessibility Collective if the document needs human work.
What you get
- Automated checks against WCAG 2.2 AA, PDF/UA-1, EN 301 549 clause 10, GIGW 3.0, RPwD Act 2016, and UN CRPD Article 24.
- Plain-language defect entries, a PAC-style conformance verdict, and a 31-checkpoint compliance summary cite-able for procurement.
- What a screen reader actually announces, with a "hear it aloud" button that plays the transcript in the browser.
- Routing for documents that need human work (STEM equations, complex diagrams, scanned PDFs without a text layer) to the Accessibility Collective.
- Built so non-specialists can act on the report. Specialists already have veraPDF and PAC; this tool is the bridge for everyone else.
Run the audit Sample report Sample audit (Word) Back to all tools
Early preview
AccessMitra
A free public PDF remediation tool. Upload an inaccessible PDF; AccessMitra runs it through the full pipeline (font fixes, tag structure, alt text for figures, table headers, math handling, language metadata, validation) and emails back an accessible tagged PDF, an accessible Word file, and an EPUB. Free for individuals and educational use. Institutions get a low-cost subscription that includes onboarding support and staff training.
How it differs from the Document Accessibility Checker
The Checker reads a PDF and tells you what is wrong with it, in plain language a non-specialist can act on. AccessMitra goes a step further: it fixes what it can fix automatically and returns ready-to-share accessible files. Run a PDF through the Checker first; if the issues are remediation-shaped, run the same file through AccessMitra.
What you get
- Anonymous upload, no account, file deleted 2 days after upload.
- Auto-tagging via PDFix SDK with document-family-specific presets where available.
- AI-generated alt text for every figure (Claude Opus, with confidence scores; below threshold escalated to human review).
- Equation handling via Mathpix where present, with MathML output and plain-language alt text.
- Coverage report against Matterhorn, PDF/UA-1, and WCAG 2.1 AA, plus a manifest of every change made.
- Outputs delivered: tagged PDF, Word, and EPUB, by email link.
Open, ready to use
Font Auditor
A free font check for any PDF. Some fonts cause text to disappear, garble, or fail screen reader software. The Font Auditor reads your file, lists every font, and tells you which ones are safe and which to replace before sharing or compressing. Built for designers, typesetters, faculty, library staff, and anyone preparing a PDF for distribution.
What you get
- Every font on every page and every embedded form classified as BROKEN, RISKY, WARN, or SAFE.
- Standard 14 PostScript names (Helvetica, Times-Roman, Courier, Symbol, ZapfDingbats) flagged when referenced without an embedded font program.
- The case where an embedded subset is too small to cover the document's character set caught early; this is the silent failure that shows up as missing letters or blank squares.
- A specific replacement named for every problem found: Arial or Source Sans 3 for Helvetica; Times New Roman or Source Serif 4 for Times-Roman; Courier New or JetBrains Mono for Courier.
- A downloadable Markdown report and a JSON summary.
Open, ready to use
Accessibility-Safe Compressor
A free PDF compressor that makes files smaller without breaking screen reader access. Most compressors strip embedded fonts, drop tags, or flatten the structure tree; the result looks the same in a browser but a screen reader cannot read it. This tool compresses by recompressing images and re-packing the PDF object stream, never touching the structure tree, fonts, alt text, RoleMap, language tags, or bookmarks.
What you get
- A font audit first, using the same logic as the Font Auditor. If any font is BROKEN, the tool refuses and tells you what to fix at the source. Compression cannot fix a font problem; the source document has to.
- Images decoded, oversized images resized, and re-encoded as JPEG at quality 80. Images with soft masks or stencil masks are skipped to preserve their alpha channels.
- The PDF object stream re-packed and Flate streams recompressed at maximum level.
- Every accessibility feature preserved byte for byte. Verified on the canonical CABE newsletter sample: 1.72 MB compressed to 1.50 MB (12.6% saved), 106 of 106 PDF/UA-1 rules still pass after compression.
Open the Compressor Run a font check first Back to all tools
Feedback and pilots
These tools are open to pilot use by remediation teams, university disability-services offices, library teams, and publishers in the Global South and elsewhere. Pilots inform the roadmap. To discuss a pilot, request a real session for your batch, or raise a bug, email deepa@equitabledocs.org.