How to use the converter

Everything the page does, in the order you meet it. Back to converting documents

The short version

1. Choose the file: a PDF, Word document, PowerPoint deck, EPUB book, or a photograph of a page. Several at once is fine.
2. Type your name (it is remembered on this computer) and the password you were given.
3. Press Convert this document and wait. Long documents are read in parts, so the wait can be several minutes.
4. Read what the checker says, choose Make corrections for anything that is wrong, then choose a format under Save as and download.

The file you send is kept on the server for ten minutes after it converts, so it can be converted again or its missing pages read, and is then deleted. What stays is a record of who converted which file and how it went, in the history.

Not fully private

The pages are read by an outside AI service: Google's Gemini, with Anthropic's Claude as a backup. This service is not fully private or secure, so do not use it for anything you need to keep strictly private. The page says so above the Convert button.

Gemini sometimes refuses to read a page, usually one it takes to be published material, such as a textbook's. When it does, the office's Claude account finishes the reading instead, and the progress says so. Nobody needs a key of their own.

If you have to wait

Each server converts three documents at a time. If it is busy, you are told where you are in the queue and roughly how long it will be, and told again when the queue moves. Beyond that, another server starts, so a wait is usually short.

While it converts

The progress messages say which stage it is at. Stop ends the conversion, and nothing is kept.

• A document over 15 pages is read in parts of about 10 pages, and the progress says which part it is on, with the longest it is likely to take. Up to 100 pages are read at a time; a longer document is refused, with a message asking you to split it. A conversion may run for up to 45 minutes.
• An EPUB book is read in parts too, counted by its pictures and its length.
• If the reading service has a hiccup, only the part that failed is asked for again. The rest is kept.
• A document with maths is read a second time, by the same service, and the two readings are compared. Every equation the two readings disagree about is flagged for you in the correction form.

When only some of it converts

A long document is read in parts. If the reading service fails part-way, or the 45 minutes a conversion is allowed run out, the parts already read are not thrown away. The page says exactly what converted and what did not, and offers two things:

• Read the missing pages now reads only the pages that were not read. The pages that succeeded are not read again, and are not paid for again.
• Work with what converted carries on with what there is. It is a real document and has passed every check; it simply is not all of the original, and it says so in its editor's note, so a copy can never be mistaken for the whole thing.

Either choice is open at the first failure and after a retry. Every partial conversion is recorded in the history, so it is possible to see which documents fail and how often.

In a batch, a file that only partly converted says so in the list and in the report, and is kept like any other, so its missing pages can be read when you open it, within ten minutes of its conversion.

Convert this document again is offered on the result screen for ten minutes after it converts: the file you sent is still here, so asking for a worksheet instead of a reading costs only the reading.

Both offers still work if you reload the page or open the document again from Pick up where you left off, as long as the ten minutes have not passed. A reload empties the form, so the offer asks for your password and the confirmation again. Once the ten minutes have passed, it says so rather than offering something that would not work.

If your connection drops after the reading is finished, the page looks for the conversion on the server, which holds it for about ten minutes, rather than losing work that has already been paid for. A conversion still needs this page to be open while it runs.

Documents in more than one language

A screen reader announces a document in the language the document says it is in. A Spanish sentence inside an English handout is therefore read with English vowels unless it is marked, which is why the rules ask for the language of each passage as well as of the page.

• The document's language is set by the reading service and can be put right in the correction form, under Language of this document.
• A passage in another language is written with markers in its own box: [es]buenos días[/es]. Use the plain code — es, fr, ar, zh, hi — and mark a passage a reader would hear as another language, not a word that has become English, like café.
• Right to left — Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Urdu — is handled for you: the page, the Word file and the EPUB lay it out correctly, and a phrase inside an English sentence keeps the punctuation around it in the right place.
• Braille uses each language's own code. English is contracted; every other language is uncontracted, so a student learning the language sees how it is spelled. Where there is no braille code for a language, the passage is written in uncontracted English braille and the transcriber's notes say so.
• A scan is read more accurately if you say which language it is in, under More settings on the first screen.

The checker looks for passages in another script that nobody has marked, and for a passage whose letters and language disagree.

What the checker tells you

When the conversion finishes, the page is checked and the result is listed.

• Errors are things that would fail an accessibility review: a missing picture description, a table cell with no headers, a heading level skipped. A table with no headers at all is often not really a table; its layout editor can make it ordinary paragraphs.
• Warnings and notes are things worth a look: an unusually long description, a passage in another language that is not marked, pages that had to be cropped.

A finding about a particular thing — a picture, an equation, a table — has a Go to it button beside it, which opens the correction form at that thing. A finding about the document as a whole has no button, because there is nowhere to go.

The checker cannot tell whether an equation matches the page, whether a picture description is true, or whether the reading order makes sense. Those are yours to check, and that is what the correction form is for. On a document with maths, the finished page carries a warning to check every equation, whichever service read it.

Correcting the document

Choose Make corrections to get a form with one box for every correctable thing, in the order the document is read. Read the document goes back to the finished page. Above the form:

• Everything, Text only, Equations only and Pictures only narrow what is shown.
• Find moves through matches and says which one you are on.
• Next change moves to something you have changed. Next equation to check moves to an equation the second reading disagreed with, and says how many there are.
• Undo and redo say what they undid. Every box you have changed also offers Put back the original.
• What changed lists every correction you have made, each with what it said before and what it says now, and a way to go to it or put it back. It appears once there is something to show. Save a record of these changes, at the end of that list, saves the same list as a small web page, with who made the corrections and when, for a reviewer who does not use this tool. It also says which corrections are not yet in the finished document.
• The document's own headings are headings here too, so a screen reader moves through the form by heading, and each page of the original is marked where it starts, as Start of page 4.
• Beside an equation, a picture or a graph, Show page N of the original opens the page it came from, with a close-up of the maths, and an Open larger button for a new tab.

Nothing you type reaches the document until you press Apply my corrections, which rebuilds the page and checks it again. If a correction cannot be applied, the reason is read out and nothing is changed.

The markers in a text box

A text box holds plain text, with a few markers so formatting can be typed:

• **bold** and *italic*
• [the words](the address) for a link
• `code` for code
• [es]buenos días[/es] for a passage in another language (see languages)
• A backslash before a marker means the marker itself, as in \*.

Some things cannot be typed, so they hold their place as a marker you keep where it belongs: [equation 3], [footnote 2], [line break], [item 4]. Each has its own box further down. If a passage cannot be shown safely with markers, it is offered piece by piece instead, and nothing else in it is touched.

Equations

Each equation can be corrected two ways, and both change the same equation:

• The visual editor, if you are used to Word's equation editor.
• Type it, an ordinary text box in a linear format like Word's, which works properly with a screen reader.

Either way, the page reads back how it understood the equation, so you can hear what will be published before you publish it. An equation marked "to check" says what the second reading made of it; the first reading is what stays until you change it.

Pictures and graphs

Every picture has a description, and the box says what the picture is for: something that carries meaning, something decorative, or a picture of text. A description should say what a sighted reader gets from the picture, not what the picture looks like.

A graph has a title, a description that is always shown, and its own data: equations one per line, points as x, y, or marks and shading for a number line. The web page turns that into a graph that can be heard as well as seen: each curve plays in 5 seconds, and it can be stepped through point by point. A graph with several curves can also play them all together, to compare them: they move from left to right side by side, each in its own sound, so a listener hears where they meet and which is higher. The Canvas package carries the same sounds as recordings to play (one after another, and together); no other format has them.

Read aloud, in every web page

Every web page has a Read aloud button at the top right, where Canvas puts its own. It reads the page in the computer's own voice, for anyone who would rather listen: headings, text, each equation in words, pictures by their descriptions, table rows with their column names, and each question with its choices and the answer given so far; a choice made in a list is said as it is made. The passage being read is highlighted, a click on any passage reads from there, and Settings has the speed, the voice, and Read each question as I move to it, which reads a question aloud as the student tabs to it.

It does not replace a screen reader, and a screen reader user can use it alongside theirs. Only the voices on the computer are offered, so nothing leaves it. A computer with no voice for the document's language is offered the browser's own online voices instead, marked "(online)": those send the words to the browser's company to be spoken.

Keys work from anywhere in the page, with Alt and Shift held together so they reach the page through a screen reader: Alt+Shift+R starts reading, or pauses and resumes it; Alt+Shift+N and Alt+Shift+P move to the next and previous passage; Escape, in the controls, closes them. Alt+Shift+Plus, Alt+Shift+Minus and Alt+Shift+0 make everything larger, smaller or normal size, on every page of the app as well. The keys are listed in Read aloud's Settings.

Tables, including their layout

Each cell has its own box, named by the headers that really apply to it, so you always know which cell you are in.

Change the layout of this table opens the layout editor, for when the reading got the structure wrong rather than the words:

• Is this really a table? Some documents use a table only to place things side by side, such as labels beside their answers or two columns of text. A screen reader announces those as a table, with a heading for every cell. Choose one of the No answers to make it ordinary paragraphs: one for each row, one for each cell reading across, or one for each cell reading down each column in turn (for text set out in columns). The editor shows the paragraphs it will make, and the words you correct in the cells go into them.
• How many header rows the table has at the top, and whether the first column holds row headings.
• Marking a single cell as a row heading.
• Merge with the cell to the right or below, which joins their text, and Split into single cells, which leaves the text in the first cell and empties the rest.
• Adding and removing rows and columns. A new cell gets its own box for its text.

The editor keeps the table rectangular, and says when a layout does not fit, for example when a merged header cell reaches below the header rows. Corrections to a cell's words are kept when the layout changes, and undo works on layout changes like anything else.

Saving in another format

Save as offers the same document in several shapes. The web page is the only one with everything. A format that cannot carry a document accessibly stays in the list, with the reason in its name.

• Web page (.html): maths, answer boxes, sound for graphs, the Size buttons and Read aloud.
• Word document (.docx): real headings, lists, tables and descriptions. Answer boxes become space to type in, and a multiple-choice question becomes its choices once, printed as the document prints them, with a line to write the number of the answer on. Not offered for documents with maths, which screen readers cannot read reliably in Word.
  Choosing Word shows a text size in points, 12 by default. Type 18 for large print, or any size from 8 to 72; headings, captions and tables grow in proportion, and the size is named in the file (syllabus 18 point.docx) so an ordinary copy and a large print one can sit side by side. Pictures and the page itself do not grow, so for magnifying everything the web page's Size buttons go further.
• EPUB book (.epub): for an e-book app, with a table of contents and page numbers. Not offered for documents with maths, or with questions to answer on the page.
• Canvas course package (.imscc): see below. Not offered for documents with questions to answer on the page, which belong in a Canvas quiz or assignment.
• Braille (.brf), in two paper sizes: 11 by 11.5 inch paper at 40 cells by 25 lines, and 8.5 by 11 inch paper at 26 cells by 22 lines. English in contracted UEB, with Nemeth for maths; other languages in their own codes, uncontracted (see above). Braille made by software must be checked by a qualified braille proofreader before a student gets it.

Putting a document into Canvas

Save the Canvas course package, then in Canvas choose Settings, Import Course Content, and Canvas Course Export Package. It adds an unpublished page, in its own module, with its pictures. Publish it when you are ready. Each graph's sound comes as a recording with a player beside the graph (the point-by-point stepping is the web page's alone). For read aloud, students use Canvas's own Immersive Reader button, at the top right of the page, in the same place as the web page's Read aloud.

Opening a finished page again

Every web page made here carries a hidden, inert copy of its own structure. Choose that .html file on the upload form and it opens straight back into corrections, with nothing sent anywhere and nothing converted again. Pictures of the original pages are not kept inside a finished page, so they are not shown that time.

Converting several files at once

Choose up to 20 files and they are converted one after another with the same settings. Leave the tab open, because the converting happens through this page. Each file is kept as it finishes and listed under Pick up where you left off. Anything that failed is listed with its reason, so it can be tried again on its own.

Picking up where you left off

Converted documents and your corrections are kept in this browser, on this computer, so a reload or a closed tab loses nothing. The newest 25 are kept, for 14 days. Open puts one back exactly as you left it, and Discard removes one; Discard every document kept here removes them all, which is worth doing on a computer other people use. None of it is on the server, and nobody else can see it.

If the browser will not keep anything — private browsing, storage full, or site data blocked for this address — the page says so and tells you to download the document before you close it. Everything still works; nothing is kept.

Making everything bigger

The Size buttons at the top go from 100% to 400%, and make everything grow together: text, buttons, pictures and equations. The size is remembered in this browser, and this page and the finished documents remember their sizes separately. A table or an equation too wide for the screen scrolls inside its own box, which the keyboard can reach, so the page itself never has to be scrolled sideways, on a phone as well. On the narrowest phones the very largest sizes are more than the screen can hold; there, a size or two smaller works.

The history

The conversion history shows who converted what, when, with which service, how long it took and how it went, with totals for each person and a spreadsheet to save. It is behind the administrator's own password, which is not the password used for converting. Documents themselves are never kept: no text, pictures or equations, only file names. Records are removed after a year. Because the file name is kept, do not put a student's name in one; call it algebra unit 3 quiz.pdf rather than anything naming the person it is for.

When something goes wrong

• "That password was not right." Use the password you were given. Ask whoever set the service up.
• Asked for the password again. Reloading the page, or opening a document again from this browser, empties the password, so rebuilding or reading again asks for it once more.
• The file is too big. The limit is 30 MB. A document of photographs can often be shrunk, and the page offers that where it can.
• Too many pages. Up to 100 pages at a time. Split the document and convert the parts.
• "Too many requests." The reading service is busy, or somebody else in the office is converting at the same time. Wait a few minutes.
• "Gemini would not read this document." Gemini sometimes refuses to copy out what it takes to be published material, such as pages from a textbook, and it does not always refuse the same page twice. This is normally handled for you: the office's Claude account finishes the reading, and the progress says so. If you still see this message, try again in a few minutes.
• A locked EPUB. A book with DRM cannot be opened by anything but its own app. Ask the publisher for an accessible copy.
• An older Word or PowerPoint file (.doc, .ppt). These are converted first, automatically. If that fails, save it as .docx or .pptx yourself and try again.
• The connection was lost. During a conversion, the page looks for the conversion on the server, which holds a finished one for ten minutes. During corrections, your corrections are still on the page: press Apply again when the connection is back.

Anything the page cannot explain in plain words is worth reporting, with the file name and the time, so it can be looked up in the history.