PDF to Accessible Markdown: Introducing Equalify Reflow, an Open Source AI Tool

This event will be online at YouTube and in-person (New York City). The speaker and live stream starts at 7:30 pm ET. In-person attendees may arrive as early as 7 pm ET. If arriving late, please leave a comment on this page and someone will come down ASAP.

Description
Members of the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) Digital Accessibility Team will introduce Equalify Reflow, an open-source, agentic AI tool that transforms inaccessible PDFs into dynamic, accessible assets.

The presentation will cover common institutional challenges with PDFs, why the team uses Markdown, and how AI is informing decisions about building and scaling PDF remediation. The team will also explain why the work is being released as open source and why UIC is investing in open-source digital accessibility solutions.

This session is designed for accessibility leaders and engineers building new solutions. Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of the opportunities and limitations of AI-assisted PDF remediation, and the role open source can play in advancing digital accessibility—supported by UIC’s growing work in the open-source accessibility space.

The presentation covers:

Why PDFs continue to be a major accessibility barrier in institutional environments How Equalify Reflow converts PDFs into dynamic accessibility assets
Why Markdown is central to the team’s workflow and long-term content strategy How AI supports triage, prioritization, and remediation decisions (and where it should not be trusted)
What “scalable remediation” looks like in practice: governance, quality controls, and implementation Why UIC is releasing the work as open source and investing in open-source accessibility solutions

Presenter bios
Blake Bertuccelli-Booth is UIC’s Assistant Director of Web Accessibility Engineering. In addition to passionately working to advance the rights of people with disabilities,