Cloud508: A Cloud Solution for Federal Government that Automates Document Accessibility

A unique collaboration designed to build accessibility into the U.S. federal government’s most important and most distributed documents, Cloud508 is Actuate Corporation’s newest endeavor. A joint project with partners Braille Works and Venatôre, the cloud-based service works with documents such as tax, health, and benefits notices, statements and other personalized communications, automatically converting them on demand into accessible, Section 508 and WCAG 2.0 Level AA compliant PDF format.

Cloud508 is not only unique, but is the first of its kind on the market. It is no secret that federal government produces and distributes enormous amounts of personalized notices to tax payers and beneficiaries, creating a significant challenge in meeting mandated Section 508 compliance allowing the documents to be accessible and usable by the blind and visually impaired recipients agencies serve.

This service has been designed to eliminate the costly and laborious manual remediation efforts typically required to produce compliant accessible electronic documents. Until now, to make a PDF document accessible, human operators would use special software and manually remediate each and every page of a personalized notice. Not only is it costly and labor intensive, but with the sheer volume of documents it also slows the delivery time to the recipient. Now with Cloud508, each personalized document can be automatically remediated, on-demand, on the fly, nearly instantly! When these documents are electronically delivered via the web, blind and visually impaired recipients can receive their notices and statements at the same time as sighted recipients. The documents generated by this automation service are output as PDF/UA format meeting WCAG 2.0 Level AA and Section 508 accessibility standards.

The Cloud508 Collaboration Partners

To create this cloud-based accessibility solution, Actuate collaborated with two commercial and federal government experienced partners:

• Braille Works International is a Section 508 and accessibility expert and leading provider of reading materials for the visually impaired serving the federal government.

• Venatôre provides data center and cloud engineering services delivering mission critical solutions to federal government customers.

Each has entered the partnership with their own area of expertise; Braille Works providing its subject-matter experience to ensure the documents meet accessibility and usability standards, and Venatôre bringing its secure cloud infrastructure required by government agencies. Actuate is contributing its patented document remediation software, designed to convert high volumes of personalized statements, notices and other communication documents into accessible PDFs.

We are excited to bring this unique service to market, and Hunter Trice, President/ CEO of Venatôre, expressed it perfectly:

“What excites us about this service is that it takes an innovative approach to addressing federally mandated accessibility requirements. The Cloud508 offering changes the rules by taking the industry from a mostly manual, time intensive remediation process to a largely automated, workflow-driven SaaS model. Cloud technology is enabling innovation in customer segments that have been traditionally underserved. Specifically, Actuate’s Cloud508 service makes it much easier for government agencies to deliver the same level of service, utility and convenience to the visually impaired.  It makes providing accessible content a part of the standard operating procedure instead of something delivered as an exception or accommodation.”

The Details

Cloud508 is highly scalable and reliable, with accessible output that has been tested and approved by The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB). Not only that, but its cloud infrastructure supports the U.S. federal government’s Cloud First Policy and its built-in security and encryption features meet strict government regulations. It delivers benefits to both the government agencies it services and the visually impaired individuals it is designed to help, including:

• Software-based automation for document remediation
• Secure and efficient delivery in the cloud
• Compliance support with U.S. accessibility legislation, including Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act
• WCAG 2.0 – Level AA and PDF/UA compliance for documents
• Equal access to government services for those with visual, cognitive, and print disabilities

Along the collaborative partnership path an unexpected outcome was realized, and born from that was yet another unique and compelling advantage of Cloud508 – the automation of traditional print formats. With some clever programming and utilization of the rich accessible output, a streamlined and more efficient process for creating braille, large print, and audio formats was developed! This brings lower costs, and for those preferring these more traditional formats, an expedited delivery time – even with higher volumes.

Lou Fioritto, Founder of Braille Works International, said:

“The concept of an automated process for the creation of accessible documents was largely dismissed due to the complexity of the process.  Cloud508 is a game-changer.  It not only automates the creation of 508 compliant PDF documents, but in the process allows for the automation of a portion of the work to create traditional formats such as braille, large print and audio.  With Cloud508, a Federal Agency can reduce the cost and time needed to deliver compliant documents to their visually impaired constituents.”

A true wealth of knowledge, experience, services, and unique patented product have been combined to create Cloud508 as a full-service, flexible solution with unmatched accuracy in its performance, speed, and accessible output. Together this is a powerful combination!

Download the Solution Overview to learn more about Cloud508.

Contact me at skelly@actuate.com to learn more about an educational, invitation-only, private training seminar for government agencies organized by Actuate and leading accessibility industry experts on December 4^th, 2014, in Washington D.C. Metro Area.

 

Automation and the Changing Landscape of Section 508 – Part 1 [Government Training Event]

The Main Event – Part 1

A Sneak Peek at the Automation and the Changing Landscape of Section 508: Government Digital Accessibility Training.

Imagine some of the leading accessibility experts from private industry and federal government gathering alongside individuals from the community it’s designed to reach. Imagine hot-topic conversations on issues related to PDF documents, HTML, web, mobile content and the future of these formats for accessibility.  Imagine hearing these experts discuss what’s in store for federal agencies as legislation evolves and the impact technology brings. Imagine hearing from the blind and visually impaired community about the effect technology has on them and how their needs are shaping both the legislation and emerging technology.  And, imagine exploring how the cloud and automation is changing the landscape of meeting Section 508 compliance, particularly for documents.

Sound interesting? Well, we think so too.

Which is why, on December 4, 2014, Actuate is hosting Automation and the Changing Landscape of Section 508: Government Digital Accessibility Training Event in Washington, DC – a one-day invitation-only, free event focused on digital accessibility for federal government. The theme of the event is “How Automation is Changing the Landscape of Digital Accessibility for Federal Government,” and over the course of two blog posts I’m going to give you a sneak peek of exactly what we’re going to offer.

Today, I’ll focus on the day’s morning sessions.

The Event

The morning sessions will involve some of the top names in digital accessibility, discussing some of today’s hottest issues. After my own keynote speech to start the day, there will be a special surprise presentation to kick things off. I can’t offer too many details on that now, but the surprise offers a reminder of the challenges blind and visually impaired users face today. You’re going to have to come to the event to see what it’s all about, though.

A panel discussion will round out the morning, featuring a line-up of leading experts discussing some of the most important topics in accessible digital content today.

The Panel

So who’ll be participating in the panel? Only some of digital accessibility’s most prominent advocates, consultants, policy makers and influencers – and some of the most knowledgeable and engaging people we’ve encountered in the field. That includes Timothy Creagan with the United States Access Board; Heidi Walters from the American Foundation for the Blind; and Matt Ater from Freedom Scientific, the makers of JAWS screen-reader technology. Terry Weaver, currently of Weaver Consulting and formerly of the General Services Administration (GSA), will be there as well. In fact, many of the contributors speaking throughout the day are visually impaired themselves, offering a first-hand perspective from the community affected by government’s accessibility efforts.

The panelists will be offering their perspectives on a number of issues. Some of the questions we’re looking to ask include:

• How much impact has Section 508 had within the federal government, and what impacts can we anticipate within the private sector moving forward?
• Why is legislative compliance so slow to happen?
• How will digital accessibility impact more traditional formats, such as Braille and large print?
• Should all digital content, including documents, be presented in HTML?
• Should we be moving towards the standardization of XML for mobile devices?

And of course, after the panel session is complete, attendees will have the opportunity to ask their own questions, and interact with the experts to find out anything they need to do.

But that’s just our morning plans for the event. There’s even more on offer in the afternoon. I’ll go into more detail on that in my next blog post.

If you’re interested in finding out more on Automation and the Changing Landscape of Section 508: Government Digital Accessibility Training, or receiving an invitation, please contact me via LinkedIn or email to skelly@actuate.com.

Attending the Web Accessibility Day

One Day in Maryland

Companies around the globe are looking to make their web content accessible for the visually impaired. But they want to do so in the most efficient, knowledge-based way they can, so that they don’t make mistakes and waste needless funds in the process. To do that, they need the right information.

With this in mind, the National Federation of the Blind’s Center of Excellence, along with the Maryland Technology Assistance Program, hosted a Web Accessibility Day in September. Held in Baltimore, Maryland, it was designed for both private and public organizations, with the goal of informing them on policy and technical innovations, and discussing the issues related to web accessibility today.

Actuate was invited to present at the training day, giving me the chance to experience the event from two perspectives: as an attendee, gleaning knowledge from the other presenters, and as a presenter myself, experiencing the reactions attendees had to Actuate’s own PDF accessibility technology. It ended up being a great day, and I wanted to share my experiences and insights from it here.

Panels and Policy Presenters

One of the first presentations of the day was “The Natural Outcome of Innovation and Inclusive Business,” by Eve Hill from the U.S. Department of Justice. Eve discussed what the Department of Justice has done and is continuing to do to influence accessible web environments. She wasn’t the only government representative at the event, either – in the afternoon’s policy-based sessions, representatives from the Department of Homeland Security and the Maryland State Board of Elections presented, as did Timothy Creagan from the U.S. Access Board, who offered an overview of the on Section 508 refresh.

Directly following Eve’s presentation, though, were two panels – one dedicated to “Enterprise Implementation of Accessibility” and another to “Education Implementation of Accessibility.” Both were informative, but the first was especially interesting, featuring among other panelists a representative from the retailer Target. Target faced its own NFB-led lawsuit back in 2006, but now they are a poster child of what companies can do to get web accessibility right. Today, they’re not only addressing accessibility in terms of their web content, and are blazing the trails on mobile technology – all while collaborating with the NFB all the way, Talk about making lemons into lemonade. Hopefully more companies can learn from their lead.

Talking Tech

While the morning sessions were underway, a select group of vendors were invited to set up tables at the back of the room, so that attendees could come over during breaks to find out more about the technology and resources available around accessible web content. Actuate was there, as was Knowbility, a non-profit group dedicated to improving technology access for people with disabilities; Ai Squared was showcasing their ZoomText magnification and screen reading software; SSB Bart, an accessibility consulting group, was available for questions; NetCentric Technologies was highlighting what’s new with their CommonLook product and the Bureau of Internet Accessibility (BOIA), which focuses on website testing for accessibility, was demonstrating their tool as well. Between sessions, attendees approached the tables, getting any information they needed on the resources available to them.

We had great interest from attendees there, and even more when I presented later on during the afternoon’s technical sessions, which also featured representatives from Deque Systems and Google. I was excited by the amount of response my presentation – “PDF Accessibility in an Enterprise Setting” – garnered, with great detailed questions from the audience centered around best practices for alt text. I was surprised to see how many people attended this session from the publishing industry and higher education – both seeking accessibility solutions for high volumes of documents and content. It’s clear that government and private companies alike are aware of the importance of accessibility – and are looking for solutions to help them along the way. And for the visually impaired community, that’s a great start.