<div dir="ltr"><p class="gmail-isSelectedEnd">Jumping in with some lived-reality perspective from Georgetown, since we’re actively navigating this right now under pretty real austerity conditions.</p><p class="gmail-isSelectedEnd"><br></p><p class="gmail-isSelectedEnd">We have an Acrobat Pro <em>site license</em>, and I want to be clear for folks reading along: that solves licensing, not remediation. At scale, Acrobat helps with OCR and basic tagging, but it does not eliminate the human labor required for structure, reading order, tables, math, figures, or meaningful alt text—especially for STEM content. That’s where time and money actually go.</p><p class="gmail-isSelectedEnd"><br></p><p class="gmail-isSelectedEnd">Budget is a huge constraint for us at the moment, so the conversation internally has had to shift from “how do we make everything accessible” to “how do we make defensible, impact-driven decisions.” That’s meant being very explicit about tradeoffs:</p><ul><li><p class="gmail-isSelectedEnd">Not all legacy PDFs are equal in risk or usage.</p></li><li><p class="gmail-isSelectedEnd">Automated tools are, at best, a first pass—not an end state.</p></li><li><p class="gmail-isSelectedEnd">Vendor remediation often scopes <em>out</em> alt text, math, and complex figures unless you pay significantly more.</p></li><li><p class="gmail-isSelectedEnd">Retrofitting thousands of documents is often more expensive than replacing or re-authoring the most critical ones over time.</p></li></ul><p class="gmail-isSelectedEnd"><br></p><p class="gmail-isSelectedEnd">What’s been most helpful for us is framing this as <strong>triage and lifecycle management</strong>, not a one-time cleanup project: prioritizing high-use / high-risk materials, de-emphasizing low-traffic archives, and being honest with stakeholders about what’s achievable under current financial conditions.</p><p class="gmail-isSelectedEnd"><br></p><p class="gmail-isSelectedEnd">No silver bullets here—just hard constraints and deliberate choices. Sharing in case it’s useful context for others facing the same pressures.</p><p></p></div><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Thu, Feb 5, 2026 at 9:22 PM Monica Olsson via athen-list <<a href="mailto:athen-list@u.washington.edu">athen-list@u.washington.edu</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">



<div>
<div dir="ltr" style="font-family:Aptos,Aptos_MSFontService,-apple-system,Roboto,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
Hi Amy, I plan to send you a document about Doc Access and security and thought that I had stated this in a prior email. Not a lot of folks know about the tool yet, in fact we (SBCTC) are they very reason a Canvas LTI tool even exists for the Doc Access tool.
 They built it for us :) I expect if our trial is successful and the tool is used at scale (really any scale) they will see a ton of higher ed clients over night…but we are kind of getting in at the beta stage. So, your inquiry to ATHEN may open a can of worms
 that I'm not entirely prepared for, but I guess it puts the tool on people's radar too!</div>
<div id="m_3569921977932505152ms-outlook-mobile-body-separator-line" style="font-family:Aptos,Aptos_MSFontService,-apple-system,Roboto,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt" dir="ltr">
<div style="font-family:Aptos,Aptos_MSFontService,-apple-system,Roboto,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt" dir="ltr">
<br>
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-family:Aptos,Aptos_MSFontService,-apple-system,Roboto,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt" id="m_3569921977932505152ms-outlook-mobile-signature">
<span style="font-family:Aptos,Aptos_MSFontService,-apple-system,Roboto,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt">Get
<a href="https://aka.ms/o0ukef" target="_blank">Outlook for iOS</a></span></div>
<hr style="display:inline-block;width:98%">
<div id="m_3569921977932505152divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size:11pt" color="#000000"><b>From:</b> athen-list <<a href="mailto:athen-list-bounces@mailman22.u.washington.edu" target="_blank">athen-list-bounces@mailman22.u.washington.edu</a>> on behalf of Amy Rovner via athen-list <<a href="mailto:athen-list@u.washington.edu" target="_blank">athen-list@u.washington.edu</a>><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, February 5, 2026 5:46:49 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> Wallace, Sagan <<a href="mailto:Sagan.Wallace@oregonstate.edu" target="_blank">Sagan.Wallace@oregonstate.edu</a>>; Access Technology Higher Education Network <<a href="mailto:athen-list@u.washington.edu" target="_blank">athen-list@u.washington.edu</a>>; Susan Kelmer <<a href="mailto:Susan.Kelmer@colorado.edu" target="_blank">Susan.Kelmer@colorado.edu</a>>; Joshua Hori <<a href="mailto:jhori@ucdavis.edu" target="_blank">jhori@ucdavis.edu</a>><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [Athen] Rec's for PDF remediation on a giant scale</font>
<div> </div>
</div>

<div dir="ltr">
<div id="m_3569921977932505152x_footer" style="background-color:white;width:100%;border:2px solid rgb(192,0,0);padding:2pt;color:rgb(192,0,0)">
<b>
<center>[Sent from outside SBCTC] </center></b>
</div>
<br>
<div>
<div style="font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
I'm very interested in the security of DocAccess. I hear that it can be embedded in Canvas. Is that how you are using it? I'm very suspect when companies using AI are too close to student data.</div>
<div style="font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
<br>
</div>
<div style="font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
Thank you!</div>
<div style="font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
Amy</div>
<div id="m_3569921977932505152x_Signature">
<div style="font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
<br>
</div>
<p style="text-align:left;text-indent:0px;background-color:white;margin:0px 0in 0in">
<span style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,104,94)"><b>Amy Rovner, MPH RD</b></span><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:black"><br>
</span><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">Director eLearning Services</span><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;color:black"><br>
</span><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:black">Accessible IT Coordinator</span></p>
<p style="text-align:initial;text-indent:0px;background-color:white;margin:0px 0in 0in">
<span style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><b>Shoreline Community College</b></span></p>
<p style="text-align:initial;text-indent:0px;background-color:white;margin:0px 0in 0in">
<span style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:blue"><u><a title="http://www.shoreline.edu/" href="http://www.shoreline.edu/" style="color:blue;margin:0px" target="_blank">www.shoreline.edu</a></u></span><span style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:black"> 
 |  206.546.6937</span></p>
<p style="text-align:initial;text-indent:0px;background-color:white;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0in">
<span style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:black">eLearning Office: 206.546.6966</span></p>
<p style="text-align:initial;text-indent:0px;background-color:white;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0in">
<span style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:black">eLearning Email:
</span><span style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:blue"><u><a title="mailto:elearning@shoreline.edu" href="mailto:elearning@shoreline.edu" style="color:blue;margin:0px" target="_blank">elearning@shoreline.edu</a></u></span></p>
<p style="text-align:initial;text-indent:0px;background-color:white;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0in">
<span style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:blue"><u><a title="https://support.shoreline.edu/" href="https://support.shoreline.edu/" style="color:blue;margin:0px" target="_blank">Shoreline Support
 Center</a></u></span></p>
<p style="text-align:initial;text-indent:0px;background-color:white;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0in">
<span style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:blue"><br>
</span></p>
<div style="font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
<img height="95" width="122" id="m_3569921977932505152x_image_0" alt="Shoreline logo with tagline, Engage. Achieve." src="cid:ii_19c33e6c585fd2a72f21" style="width: 122px; height: 95px; max-width: 709px;"></div>
</div>
<div id="m_3569921977932505152x_appendonsend"></div>
<hr style="display:inline-block;width:98%">
<div id="m_3569921977932505152x_divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" color="#000000" style="font-size:11pt"><b>From:</b> athen-list <<a href="mailto:athen-list-bounces@mailman22.u.washington.edu" target="_blank">athen-list-bounces@mailman22.u.washington.edu</a>> on behalf of Joshua Hori via athen-list <<a href="mailto:athen-list@u.washington.edu" target="_blank">athen-list@u.washington.edu</a>><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Monday, February 2, 2026 2:56 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> Wallace, Sagan <<a href="mailto:Sagan.Wallace@oregonstate.edu" target="_blank">Sagan.Wallace@oregonstate.edu</a>>; Access Technology Higher Education Network <<a href="mailto:athen-list@u.washington.edu" target="_blank">athen-list@u.washington.edu</a>>; Susan Kelmer <<a href="mailto:Susan.Kelmer@colorado.edu" target="_blank">Susan.Kelmer@colorado.edu</a>><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [Athen] Rec's for PDF remediation on a giant scale</font>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div>
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="border:1px solid darkslategray;background-color:gold;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold">
[ CAUTION: This email originated from outside Shoreline Community College. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. ]
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<div> </div>
<div>
<div style="direction:ltr;font-family:Aptos,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
DocAccess has been looking very interesting. They not only use AI for alt tags but also integrate with AIRA.io to provide human audio descriptions of images. </div>
<div style="direction:ltr;font-family:Aptos,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
<br>
</div>
<div style="direction:ltr;font-family:Aptos,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
Best, </div>
<div style="direction:ltr;font-family:Aptos,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
<br>
</div>
<div style="direction:ltr;font-family:Aptos,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
Joshua</div>
<div style="direction:ltr;font-family:Aptos,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
<br>
</div>
<div id="m_3569921977932505152x_x_mail-editor-reference-message-container" style="color:inherit;background-color:inherit">
<div style="direction:ltr">
</div>
<div style="text-align:left;padding:3pt 0in 0in;border-width:1pt medium medium;border-style:solid none none;border-color:rgb(181,196,223) currentcolor currentcolor;font-family:Aptos;font-size:12pt;color:black">
<b>From: </b>athen-list <<a href="mailto:athen-list-bounces@mailman22.u.washington.edu" target="_blank">athen-list-bounces@mailman22.u.washington.edu</a>> on behalf of Wallace, Sagan via athen-list <<a href="mailto:athen-list@u.washington.edu" target="_blank">athen-list@u.washington.edu</a>><br>
<b>Date: </b>Wednesday, January 28, 2026 at 8:16 AM<br>
<b>To: </b>Access Technology Higher Education Network <<a href="mailto:athen-list@u.washington.edu" target="_blank">athen-list@u.washington.edu</a>>, Susan Kelmer <<a href="mailto:Susan.Kelmer@colorado.edu" target="_blank">Susan.Kelmer@colorado.edu</a>><br>
<b>Subject: </b>Re: [Athen] Rec's for PDF remediation on a giant scale<br>
<br>
</div>
<div style="font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
So far everyone I've looked at will do large-scale projects, but not write alt text (though they'll include it if you write it). I used Allyant for outsourcing PDFs at the time.</div>
<div style="direction:ltr;font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
<br>
</div>
<div style="font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
Since I'm feeling snarky....why not just dump them in an ABBYY hot folder and call it a day? They're not going to make accessible STEM PDFs anyway, so why waste time finding the best option? 🙃</div>
<div id="m_3569921977932505152x_x_Signature" style="color:inherit;background-color:inherit">
<div style="direction:ltr;font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
<br>
</div>
<p style="margin:0in;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:11pt">
Sagan Wallace</p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:11pt">
<i>they/them</i> </p>
</div>
<hr style="display:inline-block;width:98%">
<div id="m_3569921977932505152x_x_divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr" style="color:inherit;background-color:inherit">
<span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><b>From:</b> athen-list <<a href="mailto:athen-list-bounces@mailman22.u.washington.edu" target="_blank">athen-list-bounces@mailman22.u.washington.edu</a>> on behalf of Susan Kelmer via athen-list <<a href="mailto:athen-list@u.washington.edu" target="_blank">athen-list@u.washington.edu</a>><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, January 28, 2026 6:42 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> Access Technology Higher Education Network <<a href="mailto:athen-list@u.washington.edu" target="_blank">athen-list@u.washington.edu</a>><br>
<b>Subject:</b> [Athen] Rec's for PDF remediation on a giant scale</span>
<div> </div>
</div>
<p style="direction:ltr;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px">
<span style="color:rgb(215,63,9)">[This email originated from outside of OSU. Use caution with links and attachments.]</span></p>
<div style="direction:ltr;font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
I hope everyone's semester has gotten off to a bang-up start! </div>
<div style="direction:ltr;font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
<br>
</div>
<div style="direction:ltr;font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
A department on my campus has a enormous stockpile of scientific/engineering-type PDFs that are publicly available, and that department wants to undertake turning them all into accessible documents.  Yes, they really want to do this, and first they asked me
 if I wanted to take on the project.</div>
<div style="direction:ltr;font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
<br>
</div>
<div style="direction:ltr;font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
No thanks.</div>
<div style="direction:ltr;font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
<br>
</div>
<div style="direction:ltr;font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
So I'm looking for recommendations for any large-scale PDF remediation companies that could do this kind of work.   Please and thanks.</div>
<div style="direction:ltr;font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
<br>
</div>
<div style="direction:ltr;font-family:"Times New Roman";font-size:10pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
<b>Susan Kelmer</b></div>
<div id="m_3569921977932505152x_x_x_Signature" style="color:inherit;background-color:inherit">
<div style="font-family:"Times New Roman";font-size:10pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
Alternate Format Production Program Manager</div>
<div style="font-family:"Times New Roman";font-size:10pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
Disability Services</div>
<div style="font-family:"Times New Roman";font-size:10pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
Division of Student Life</div>
<div style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman";color:rgb(207,184,124)"><b>T</b></span><span style="font-family:Aptos;color:rgb(31,73,125)"> </span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black">303
 735 4836</span></div>
<div style="font-family:"Times New Roman";font-size:13px;color:rgb(207,184,124)">
<b><u><a href="http://www.colorado.edu/disabilityservices" title="http://www.colorado.edu/disabilityservices" target="_blank">www.colorado.edu/disabilityservices</a></u></b></div>
<div style="direction:ltr;font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
<br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

_______________________________________________<br>
athen-list mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:athen-list@mailman22.u.washington.edu" target="_blank">athen-list@mailman22.u.washington.edu</a><br>
<a href="http://mailman22.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/athen-list" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://mailman22.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/athen-list</a><br>
</blockquote></div><div><br clear="all"></div><div><br></div><span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><span style="color:rgb(136,136,136)">Best Regards,</span></div><div dir="ltr"><span style="color:rgb(136,136,136)">Kevin Andrews</span><div><span style="color:rgb(136,136,136)">Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Coordinator </span></div><div><span style="color:rgb(136,136,136)">University Information Services </span><br style="color:rgb(136,136,136)"><span style="color:rgb(136,136,136)">Georgetown University </span><br style="color:rgb(136,136,136)"><br></div></div></div></div></div>