altscribe 0.2.0

AI-powered WCAG 2.1 AA document accessibility checker and fixer — built on pandoc and Claude

altscribe

AI-powered WCAG 2.1 AA document accessibility checker and fixer — built on pandoc and Claude.

Designed for California State University faculty to meet accessibility obligations under ADA Title II, Section 508, and the CSU Accessible Technology Initiative.

Features

Accessibility Checks

Check	WCAG SC	Detects	Auto-fix
Image Alt-Text	1.1.1, 1.4.5	Missing/inadequate alt-text on images	AI-generated alt-text by image type
Heading Hierarchy	1.3.1, 2.4.6	Missing H1, skipped levels, empty headings, fake headings (bold paragraphs)	Re-levels headings, promotes fake headings
Link Text Quality	2.4.4	"Click here", bare URLs, empty links, duplicate text with different URLs	AI-suggested descriptive replacements
Table Accessibility	1.3.1	Missing captions, empty table headers	AI-generated captions
Document Language	3.1.1	Missing lang attribute	Auto-detects language via langdetect
List Structure	1.3.1	Fake lists (bullet/numbered paragraphs not using list markup)	Converts to proper list elements

Core Capabilities

• Automatic image classification — detects decorative, informative, functional, complex, and text images per the W3C WAI Images Tutorial
• Check-only mode — report issues without making changes or API calls (--check)
• Selective checks — enable/disable individual checks (--enable, --disable)
• Context-aware AI — passes surrounding text and section headings to Claude for better descriptions
• Complex image support — generates both short alt-text and structured long descriptions for charts, graphs, and diagrams
• Any format in, any format out — leverages pandoc to read and write Markdown, HTML, DOCX, RST, LaTeX, and more

Installation

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10+
• pandoc installed and on PATH
• An Anthropic API key

Install from PyPI

pip install altscribe

# With automatic language detection (for document-language check)
pip install altscribe[language]

Install from source

git clone https://github.com/ahb-sjsu/altscribe.git
cd altscribe
pip install -e .

Usage

# Set your API key (or pass --api-key)
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...

# Fix all accessibility issues in a Markdown file
altscribe lecture-notes.md -o lecture-notes-accessible.md

# Check only — report issues without fixing (no API calls, free)
altscribe --check lecture-notes.md

# Run only specific checks
altscribe --enable heading-hierarchy --enable link-text --check doc.md

# Skip certain checks
altscribe --disable image-alt-text doc.md -o fixed.md

# Convert HTML to accessible Markdown
altscribe syllabus.html -f html -t markdown -o syllabus.md

# Regenerate alt-text even for images that already have it
altscribe slides.md --overwrite -o slides-fixed.md

Options

Flag	Description
-o, --output FILE	Output file path (default: stdout)
-f, --from FORMAT	Pandoc input format (default: auto-detect)
-t, --to FORMAT	Pandoc output format (default: markdown)
--api-key KEY	Anthropic API key (or set ANTHROPIC_API_KEY). Only required in fix mode.
--overwrite	Regenerate alt-text for images that already have it
--check	Report-only mode — no fixes, no API calls. Exit code 1 if issues found.
--enable ID	Only run specific check(s). Repeatable.
--disable ID	Skip specific check(s). Repeatable.

Available Check IDs

image-alt-text, heading-hierarchy, link-text, table-accessibility, document-language, list-structure

How It Works

1. Parse — reads the input document into a pandoc AST via panflute
2. Walk — traverses the AST once, dispatching each element to registered checkers (headings, images, links, tables, lists, etc.)
3. Analyze — each checker accumulates issues: missing alt-text, skipped heading levels, generic link text, fake lists, and more
4. Fix (unless --check) — checkers apply auto-fixes: AI-generated alt-text, re-leveled headings, proper list markup, language tags
5. Report — prints a summary of all issues found and fixed to stderr
6. Output — writes the modified document in any pandoc-supported format

Compliance

altscribe is designed to satisfy the following standards as they apply to CSU:

Regulation	Standard	Deadline
ADA Title II (2024 Final Rule)	WCAG 2.1 Level AA	April 24, 2026
Section 508 (Revised 2017)	WCAG 2.0 Level AA	Ongoing
California Gov. Code 11135	Section 508 compliance	Ongoing
California AB 434	WCAG 2.0 Level AA+	Biennial
CSU Executive Order 1111	CSU ATI Policy	Ongoing

WCAG success criteria addressed

• 1.1.1 Non-text Content (Level A) — all images receive appropriate text alternatives
• 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A) — headings, tables, and lists use proper semantic markup
• 1.4.5 Images of Text (Level AA) — text in images is transcribed verbatim
• 2.4.4 Link Purpose (Level A) — link text is descriptive and non-generic
• 2.4.6 Headings and Labels (Level AA) — heading hierarchy is logical and complete
• 3.1.1 Language of Page (Level A) — document language attribute is present

Image handling per W3C WAI guidelines

Image type	alt-text strategy	Long description
Decorative	alt=""	No
Informative	Concise description	No
Functional	Action/destination label	No
Complex (charts, diagrams)	Short identifying label	Yes — inserted as adjacent text block
Images of text	Verbatim transcription	No

Note: AI-generated alt-text should be reviewed by a human for accuracy. altscribe is a productivity tool that drafts compliant alt-text — final responsibility for accessibility rests with the content author.

Development

# Install dev dependencies
pip install -e . ruff black pytest

# Run tests
pytest tests/ -v

# Lint
ruff check src/ tests/

# Format
black src/ tests/

License

MIT