Introducing Accessible PDF Exports in FromThePage

We’re pleased to introduce accessible PDF exports in FromThePage.

For public libraries, public universities, and other state and local institutions, the Department of Justice has established WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the accessibility standard for web content—including documents such as PDFs. Compliance deadlines are now April 2027 or April 2028, depending on the size of the public entity, with limited exceptions for some archived and preexisting documents. Read the DOJ guidance.

Fortunately, we didn’t—and you don’t—have to invent a definition of “accessible.” WCAG defines it for us. The challenge is making sure we meet that definition.

For PDFs, much of the work comes down to details that sighted readers may never notice:

• Are headings identified as headings?
• Will a screen reader encounter the text in the right order?
• Does the file have a title?
• Is the document’s language specified?

We used the free MAUVE++ PDF accessibility validator throughout development to find problems, evaluate each iteration, and check our work against WCAG’s PDF techniques.

But what’s particularly different about FromThePage’s exports is the transcription behind them. You can create an accessible PDF using:

• Human transcription
• AI transcription
• Human transcription when available, with AI filling the gaps

That means you can import a collection, run Gemini on it, and export accessible PDFs minutes later: accessibility on demand.

Or staff and volunteers can review and correct those drafts—or transcribe the documents themselves. The hybrid option gives you the best of both worlds: immediate access now, with human-reviewed text replacing the AI drafts as the project progresses.

Want to see what an accessible FromThePage PDF looks like? Download an example—or watch our one-minute walkthrough to export one from your own collection.

Working on a larger accessibility project? Talk to us about your collections.