altex Accessible LaTeX

About this tool

altex is a proof-of-concept utility that enhances PDF accessibility by post-processing files generated from LaTeX. It uses the semantic structure from your source .tex file to tag the compiled PDF.

How it works

• Parses LaTeX: Extracts document structure (headings, lists, math, figures) from your source code.
• Tags PDF: Maps this structure to the PDF content, adding PDF/UA accessibility tags.
• Fixes Metadata: Sets required metadata like title, language, and tab order.
• Validates: Checks the result against PDF/UA-1 standards using verapdf.

Note: This is an automated tool. While it significantly improves accessibility compliance, complex documents may still require manual verification.

Privacy & data handling

Your files are never written to a database. Each upload is processed in a temporary working directory that is deleted as soon as the request finishes — on success or error — so your .tex, .pdf, and all intermediate files are discarded immediately (see the finally cleanup in web/app.py). The default Docker deployment runs stateless (ALTEX_STORAGE=inline), streaming the tagged PDF back in the response with nothing kept on the server; in local mode the result is held only in an ephemeral temp directory that is cleared when the service restarts.

View source on GitHub