Making PDFs more accessible to screen readers with open source

A screen reader is a vital tool that helps individuals who are blind or low-vision read digital text. Unfortunately, not all file formats receive the same level of support from screen readers. For example, while PDF files have accessibility features that you can use, they are often not the preferred file format for screen reader users. Between line breaks, multiple columns, symbols, and images, screen readers can have trouble reading PDFs in a cohesive way to their users.
This is what the folks at Open @ RIT are trying to change.
Open @ RIT is the open source program office at the Rochester Institute of Technology, offering RIT faculty and staff assistance in opening their research projects and maintaining communities of practice around their work. One such faculty member is Dr. Todd Pagano, Professor of Chemistry and Associate Dean for Teaching and Scholarship Excellence at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. Dr. Pagano came to Open @ RIT seeking help to increase the accessibility of an open-access journal, the publications of which currently exist as PDFs.
The Open @ RIT team, consisting of UX designer Rahul Jaiswal and full-stack developer Suhas C.V., have used this project as a stepping stone to begin exploring ways to convert PDFs into accessible HTML.
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