Regulation 35A of the Equal Rights for Persons with Disabilities Law, which mandates that organizations and businesses make accessible every document prepared from October 26, 2017, onwards, came into full effect at the beginning of this year, 2022. Therefore, from January 1st onwards, organizations were required to provide accessible documents to customers—financial reports, public protocols, customer forms, etc.—immediately, in accordance with the principle of inclusivity in accessibility.
During 2021, in preparation for the regulation’s implementation, Consist made millions of documents accessible for most of Israel’s major banks and other leading organizations using a special technological solution we developed. The system that enabled us to make such a significant volume of documents accessible is called NAGIX, and we wanted to share with you the process that now allows organizations to provide their customers with an accessible version of any document, at the click of a button, in accordance with the principle of inclusivity in accessibility.
Making Documents, Protocols, and Reports Accessible with the NAGIX System
Let’s start from the beginning: What is an accessible document, and what is the principle of inclusivity in accessibility?
An accessible document is a digital document that a visually impaired person can listen to using screen reading software. The accessibility process creates a PDF document that contains an accessibility tree that screen reading software can read in the order determined by the document’s accessibility designer.
The principle of inclusivity in accessibility dictates that simply making a document accessible is not enough to meet legal requirements; the accessibility must enable a person with a disability to operate in the public space like anyone else. Accordingly, accessibility that adheres to the principle of inclusivity must allow a visually impaired person to immediately create an accessible version of any customer document without needing to ask the organization to make this or that document accessible on an individual basis.
This is similar to the principle of inclusivity in physical accessibility for, say, a public institution (or a café or restaurant, for that matter) that is accessed via a staircase. Clearly, the institution cannot meet its obligation by placing a person at the bottom of the stairs to assist people with mobility impairments in climbing the stairs. True accessibility according to the law and the principle of inclusivity requires mobility in the space like any other person, and therefore, real accessibility necessitates, for example, the installation of an elevator or ramp that allows a person in a wheelchair to ascend without the help of another person. The same principle applies to document accessibility, customer forms, public protocols, financial reports of public companies, and more.
Legal Requirements Regarding Document Accessibility
With the growing awareness over the years of the importance of accessibility in general and document accessibility in particular, Consist developed automatic document accessibility technology that operates within Consist’s digital forms system, PB Digital. During 2021, many organizations approached Consist and asked us to develop and implement a solution for making the vast amounts of documents they had accessible.
It’s important to note that in large banks, for example, there are millions of documents that require accessibility, and it is clear that with any technology other than automatic accessibility like NAGIX, an enormous and unrealistic amount of work hours would be required to adequately convert those millions of documents to accessible ones according to the law and the principle of inclusivity.
How to Make Millions of Existing Documents Accessible? Using the Repetitive-Automatic Accessibility Method
To make millions of existing documents in organizations accessible, we mapped out all the forms and documents that needed accessibility in each organization—invoices, customer documents, public protocols, financial reports, etc.—and categorized the documents and forms into families. For each family, we created relevant tags that included:
- Paragraphs
- Images
- Logos
- Amounts of money
- Dates
- Tables
- Graphs
- And more.
We assigned each existing form and document to one of the families, and then defined the elements that make up each document in the NAGIX system.
Two Steps to the Repetitive-Automatic Accessibility Solution in the NAGIX System
- Design Phase
In this phase, the designer uses the unique DESIGNER tool of the NAGIX document accessibility system to define master templates for all types of forms and documents existing in the organization. In a large bank or financial institution, for example, the number of templates can reach hundreds or more. After all the organization’s documents are categorized according to the structure of the different document types, the implementer uses NAGIX to create a template for each type of document, consisting of an accessibility tree. - Production Phase of Accessible Documents
After all the organization’s documents are categorized into families and master templates, every customer of the organization will automatically receive an accessible version of every document they need, even when dealing with millions of existing documents. NAGIX identifies the family and type of document the customer wants to receive and knows how to provide the screen reading software with the template and order in which to read the document.
Challenges of Document Accessibility that NAGIX Addresses
Even the most advanced screen reading software cannot independently know, for example, if a number in a document is an amount of money, a phone number, an address, etc. Additionally, tables and nested tables (a table within a table) present a particular challenge in the world of document accessibility. To overcome these challenges, the NAGIX system integrates advanced technology to provide the best accessible customer experience. For example:
- Accessibility of Phone Numbers/Starred Phone Numbers
Screen reading software reads the content of documents in Hebrew from right to left. However, when it comes to phone numbers, for the convenience of the user, the digits need to be read from left to right. NAGIX allows the accessibility implementer to specifically define for the screen reading software to read the digits of the phone number from left to right and to switch to English when it comes to the organization’s web address. - Images, Icons, and Logos
Screen reading software cannot read images, logos, icons, and symbols, but NAGIX allows the document accessibility implementer to provide a description of the image or logo, enabling the screen reading software to provide the user with an accurate description of the visual. - Tables, Nested Tables, and Rotated Tables (tables lying sideways relative to the paragraphs that appear before and after them)
NAGIX’s solution allows the accessibility implementer to define fields within tables, thereby providing clear accessibility for complex content within tables, nested tables, and rotated tables. The system also knows how to define numbers, amounts of money, dates, and any other elements within the tables so that the screen reading software knows to read the column definition and also the column content in the order defined by the implementer. This way, it is relatively easy for a visually impaired person to follow the reading and understand the context of each piece of data in the table. - Graphs and Data within a Graph
Graphs based on information present a unique challenge in document accessibility. However, NAGIX enables the accessibility of such elements by linking the data file from which the information was drawn. The PDF document displays the graph, with the data on which the graph is based being highlighted in white by the implementer. NAGIX’s implementer knows how to associate each data point with the graph so that the screen reading software reads them in the accessible document.
Consist’s Accessibility Implementers Task Force
Due to the enormous number of documents and forms we needed to make accessible, we quickly established an ‘implementers task force’ that succeeded in a very short time, using the NAGIX system, to make a vast array of documents accessible for the company’s clients—protocols, customer letters and forms, financial reports, and more. Thanks to the accessibility implementers team, we accomplished the mission, and today clients of these organizations can generate accessible versions of any required document for themselves.
It’s important to add that our sense of satisfaction at Consist is immense, not only because we met the goal we set for ourselves but also, and primarily, because there is a tremendous social value here—allowing a visually impaired person to receive the information they need without any limitation. The law indeed mandates this, but at Consist, we believe that public space and documents should be accessible not just because the law requires it, but because it is a first-rate social value, and we are happy and proud to be partners in this endeavor.
