Application for Determining the Usability of Adapted Textbooks by People with Low Vision

People with low vision and different forms of vision impairment often face difficulties accessing print publications: the World Blind Union estimates that over 90 percent of published print books are not accessible to readers with low vision. In this paper, we build on our previous work concerning a formalized standard for determining whether a print book is sufficiently accessible, and present the results of developing an application which processes an electronic file in the PDF format and provides actionable recommendations for enhancing its accessibility. After downloading and processing an input file, this application its text, illustrations and background and outputs an annotated version of its input file, highlighting elements that do not match the acceptable standards and criteria of a sufficiently accessible publication for readers with low vision. It enables editors and publishers to easily detect and correct commonly found accessibility issues, ensuring that a publication fully serves the needs of its diverse readership.