AIDRE
Compliance targets

The WCAG 2.1 criteria AIDRE targets

WCAG 2.1 Level AA is the standard the ADA Title II rule names. These are the success criteria AIDRE repairs in course documents, and what it does for each.

WCAG 2.1 success criteria and what AIDRE does
CriterionWhat AIDRE does
1.1.1 Non-text Content A Writes a description for each image in a Word document and each picture in a slide deck, and for each figure and equation in a tagged PDF. A description the author already wrote is kept.
1.3.1 Info and Relationships A
  • Data tables. The header row is marked, so it repeats on every page and a screen reader announces it as a header. An empty top-left corner gets a label naming what the rows are, and the table gets a caption and description. Merged headers that span the table are folded into one clear header and corner label. A table with no header row can be given one, named from its own contents, when your institution allows repairs that change a page's layout.
  • Tables used for layout. Callout boxes and banners built from tables become ordinary paragraphs, keeping their borders and shading, so a screen reader no longer announces a table that isn't one.
  • Lists. Numbered and bulleted lists typed by hand become real lists, so a screen reader announces how many items a list has and which one the student is on, and the numbering carries through to the PDF.
  • Headings. Text that only looks like a heading, because it is bold or large, becomes a real heading. A screen-reader user can then hear the document's outline and jump from section to section, the way a sighted reader skims.
  • Slide decks and tagged PDFs. Slides get real titles and reading order. In tagged PDFs, headings, table headers and lists are tagged where the file's structure supports it, with the author's confirmation for tables and lists.
1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence A Puts the shapes on each slide in the order they appear on screen. In tagged PDFs, finds reading-order problems and, when the author confirms the page layout, corrects them.
1.4.1 Use of Color A In Word, colored text is also made bold, so color is never the only cue, and links get a lasting underline.
1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) AA In Word and slide decks, text below a 4.5:1 contrast ratio is darkened or lightened, keeping its color family, until it passes. In tagged PDFs, low-contrast text is reported and can be corrected on request.
2.4.1 Bypass Blocks A The headings it adds to documents and PDFs, and the titles it gives slides, let a screen-reader user jump between sections.
2.4.2 Page Titled A Gives each Word document a title taken from its own opening line, and each tagged PDF one taken from its own heading, never from the file name. Every slide gets a real title, carried over from the deck's own earlier slides where it can be.
2.4.3 Focus Order A Slide content follows its visual reading order, and a tagged PDF's tab order follows its structure.
2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) A In Word, a vague link like "click here" or a bare web address gets text that says where it goes, while the instructor's sentence around it stays as written. In tagged PDFs, each link gets a description for screen readers without changing what the page shows.
2.4.6 Headings and Labels AA Marks the headings in Word documents at their levels. In tagged PDFs, tags the document's first heading, and more after the author's review. In slide decks, the slide title is the label.
3.1.1 Language of Page A Sets the document language in Word documents, slide decks and tagged PDFs, keeping a language the document already declares.
4.1.2 Name, Role, Value A In tagged PDFs, links get names, table header cells get their scope, and headings get their levels, so assistive technology announces each correctly.
Beyond the checklist

What makes STEM materials work

  • Equations as real math

    Equations from older equation editors become native Word math. AIDRE also corrects the equation layouts that Word and the PDF converter draw differently, so the PDF shows what the instructor wrote.

  • A tagged PDF from every Word file

    Each repaired Word document is exported to a tagged PDF ready to post. Slide decks come back as repaired PowerPoint files, which export to PDF from PowerPoint.

  • Accessible solution keys

    An answer key built from handwritten solutions, or drafted for the instructor to review, goes through the same repairs and the same tagged PDF export as every other document, with its equations as real math and its figures described.

  • A review page for every run

    Each run shows the headings it placed and every image beside the description it wrote, and reports what it changed, so a person can confirm the result before it is posted.

Where AIDRE works

Word and PowerPoint source files are the primary path: AIDRE repairs the file the instructor edits, so the work survives the next edit. For a PDF that already carries accessibility tags, AIDRE improves what is there, adding descriptions, headers, link text and a title, but that is an improvement to an existing file, not full remediation.

AIDRE does the remediation; your checker confirms it. AIDRE makes these repairs in the source file and shows every change. It does not grade its own work: the instructor's review and an accessibility checker such as Ally, Panorama or UDOIT confirm the posted file, and the review page makes the first of those quick.

You choose which repairs run. Your administrator sets the defaults for your institution, and whoever runs a job can choose a repair level or switch individual repairs on and off for that run. A few repairs that move content on the page, such as writing a new header row into a table, stay off unless someone deliberately switches them on.

How licensing works