A Document Equity Initiative
A non-commercial pipeline for accessible academic documents, built for Global South universities and libraries.
Live site: equitabledocs.org
EquitableDocs audits the documents an institution already uses, fixes what automation cannot, delivers the corrected file back through the same workflow, and trains the institution to run the loop on its own. Remediation is free for students with print disabilities, faculty authors, and library staff. For institutions running bulk remediation, the work is offered at non-commercial cost-only pricing. A 12 to 18 month capacity-building partnership is also available at no service fee; only travel and on-site logistics are charged at cost-recovery, waivable on need.
Page Accessibility Coach is a Chrome extension that audits any web page and translates the findings into plain language via the Claude API. No WCAG jargon, no node selectors, no engineering vocabulary. Built for faculty, library staff, and anyone who creates or maintains web content. v0.1 is a developer-install alpha. Install steps are in the repository README.
| Tool | What it does | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Document Accessibility Checker | Plain-language accessibility audit of any PDF, Word, or PowerPoint file. Reports cite five international standards. | In testing |
| AccessMitra | Converts a PDF into accessible formats: tagged PDF, accessible Word, EPUB. Simple PDFs deliver automatically; complex documents go through human verification. | In testing |
| AltBridge | A working space for alt-text writing on figures and diagrams, including STEM. Subject specialists describe, remediators apply. | In testing |
| Font Auditor | A font check for any PDF. Flags fonts that cause text to disappear, garble, or break screen readers. | In testing |
| Accessibility-Safe Compressor | Shrinks PDF files without breaking tags, fonts, alt text, or bookmarks. | In testing |
| Page Accessibility Coach | Chrome extension audit of any web page, plain-language translation via the Claude API. | Open repo (Developer alpha v0.1) |
For tools in testing, request access at equitabledocs.org/waitlist.html.
The Document Accessibility Community of Practice is a peer space for remediators, subject experts, disability-services staff, and student advocates working on accessible higher-education documents in the Global South. Membership is free, contribution is voluntary, and joining takes two minutes.
Join the Community of Practice
Documents produced through EquitableDocs meet five standards:
- WCAG 2.2 Level AA (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, October 2023)
- PDF/UA-1 (ISO 14289-1:2014, evaluated against the Matterhorn Protocol version 1.1)
- EN 301 549 V3.2.1 (European harmonised standard, Clause 10, non-web documents)
- GIGW 3.0 (Guidelines for Indian Government Websites)
- RPwD Act 2016 (Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, India; UGC accessibility guidelines)
Every audit cover page cites all five standards. Every finding cites the specific clause it fails.
EquitableDocs is an initiative by Deepa Palaniappan, a disability inclusion practitioner and special educator. She is a trained assistive technology and accessibility expert with hands-on practice in creating and remediating accessible documents for students with print disabilities, including Easy Read and plain-language versions. Read more on the About page.
She also runs the Disability Rights Repository, a portal where grassroots disability practitioners from the Global South share their work. The repository exists so that persons with disabilities can emerge as thought leaders in the disability sector across the Global South, not only as research subjects.
- Email: deepa@equitabledocs.org
- Phone: +91 91100 41713
- Website: equitabledocs.org
- Partnership enquiry form: equitabledocs.org/universities.html#apply