Scanned Readings

Some scanners can produce more accessible PDFs compared to others. Use the information below to learn more about machines on campus so you may select the right one for your needs.

Ricoh Scanner with Accessibility Tab (recommended)

Locations on campus:
  • Volen: Second floor, room 211
  • Mandel: Second floor, front of building, next to stairwell 2
  • Gryzmish: Main floor, in the office of communications, left side behind the kitchen
  • IBS/Lemberg: Second floor, in the kitchen, across from room 256
  • Heller/Schneider: First floor, in the Career Development Center, across from room 106

Accessibility level: High

Many people use screen readers or other assistive technology to access digital content. In order for a assistive technology to communicate with the text, that content must be "tagged" as text. These machines use special software to do exactly that.

Your content will be scanned and converted from images into editable, searchable and tagged text. The software uses an algorithm called Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to identify letters in an image. The outcome is a PDF with text you can select, copy and paste. This machine then applies invisible tags to make the content compatible with assistive technology.

Standard Ricoh Scanner

  • Various locations

Accessibility level: None

The most common scanner on campus. Your content will be scanned and converted into an image (even text). Images of text cannot be edited, selected or copied.

Your document(s) will be inaccessible.