June 21, 2025

Making Digital Communications Truly Accessible: How Perfect Doc Studio Supports the New EU Accessibility Mandate

With the European Accessibility Act becoming enforceable across the EU from June 28, 2025, organizations are now legally obligated to ensure their digital content is accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. At Perfect Doc Studio, we have been championing accessibility long before it became a mandate. Our journey into making communications accessible began in 2021, and what we’ve learned since has transformed not just how we design documents, but how we think about document generation and customer communication itself

digital content for disable

Understanding the EU Accessibility Act

The European Accessibility Act is a landmark legislation aimed at ensuring that products and services across the EU are accessible to people with disabilities. It applies to key digital offerings such as websites, mobile applications, e-books, self-service terminals, and crucially — digital documents and customer communications. The goal is to remove barriers that prevent equal access to information, fostering a more inclusive digital experience for all.

For organizations, this means a legal and ethical responsibility to make sure that all communications — especially high-volume documents like invoices, insurance statements, and contracts — are accessible through screen readers, keyboard navigation, and compliant formatting standards like WCAG and PDF/UA.

The Problem With “Accessible” PDFs in Document Generation

When we first set out to make our PDFs and emails accessible, we followed the European accessibility guidelines to the letter — adding screen reader tags, defining reading orders, applying presentation roles in HTML emails. But even then, something felt off. These documents were technically accessible, but when we listened to them through screen readers, they were still confusing and often overwhelming.

Consider a bank statement with tables of detailed transactions or an insurance policy with complex coverage terms. While all the right tags might be in place, the flow of information, the lack of context, and the sheer volume of data made it a frustrating experience for visually impaired users.

Here’s how a screen reader typically reads:

Let’s take a real example of a health insurance statement. Visually, it looks clear, structured, and easy to follow — but here’s how a screen reader typically reads it out loud:

insurance statement

Row 1, Column 1: SN°
Row 1, Column 2: First name Last name Data of birth
Row 1, Column 3: Insurance plan
Row 1, Column 4: Start of the insurance plan
Row 1, Column 5: At
Row 1, Column 6: Rising

Row 1, Column 1: 1
Row 1, Column 2: Samuel, born 28/04/1991
Row 1, Column 3: Insure HOSPI FLEXI FRAIS MEDICAUX C.T.A.01/2021. Contribution personnelle: €154,23
Row 1, Column 4: 01/03/2000
Row 1, Column 5: 01/01/2022
Row 1, Column 6: €282,60

Why this fails:

  • It’s monotonous and broken into isolated cells.
  • Context (who, what, why) is lost in linear narration.
  • Screen readers read row-by-row without guiding the listener about relevance or focus.

Now imagine listening to 100 rows of that just to understand your monthly spend. It’s technically accessible, but practically exhausting. This is a major challenge in making automated document generation truly inclusive.

The Breakthrough: Personalized Summaries in Customer Communication

We realized that most people — regardless of ability — read documents to understand one thing: the gist. What is this document telling me? What’s new? What’s important? Yet traditional accessibility tools often ignore this fundamental need.

To solve this, we introduced intelligent summaries at the document level and at individual section levels. These summaries are personalized and dynamically generated based on the content of the communication. For example:

content summeries
Sample Summary for the table above
  • A bank statement may start with: “You spent 12% more this month, mainly on travel. Your largest transaction was $432 at XYZ Airlines.”
  • An insurance policy update might open with: “Your coverage now includes outpatient care with a cap of $10,000 annually.”

These summaries are placed at the top of the document and at key junctions within the content, making it easier for users relying on screen readers to quickly grasp what the document is about.

This level of detail and personalization elevates customer communication from accessible to truly user-centric.

Supporting 108 Languages with Accessible Document Generation

Accessibility isn’t just about screen readers and visual contrast — it’s also about language inclusivity. Perfect Doc Studio currently supports document generation and customer communication in 108 languages, ensuring that users can access information not just in a readable format, but in their preferred language.

Built-In Accessibility Validators for Every Document

Compliance with accessibility laws isn’t always straightforward. The legal language and WCAG guidelines can be daunting. To make this easier, Perfect Doc Studio now includes embedded accessibility validators.

accessibility validator
Accessibility Validator at work — Perfect Doc Studio

These validators:

  • Evaluate content for screen reader readability
  • Score contrast ratios between text and background
  • Flag insufficient font sizes
  • Provide actionable recommendations to improve accessibility ratings

All this happens within the document design environment — allowing creators to fix issues before communications are sent out. This makes compliance a native part of document generation workflows.

Why Accessible Customer Communication Matters

Digital accessibility isn’t just a legal requirement — it’s a moral one. Everyone deserves the dignity of accessing information clearly and comfortably. We believe that accessibility should not be an afterthought or a checklist item. It should be central to how we build and deliver communications.

At Perfect Doc Studio, we’re not just ticking boxes — we’re reimagining what accessible communication should be. We’re proud to help organizations across the world meet the EU mandate, and more importantly, serve their customers with empathy and intelligence.

If you’re looking for an accessible document generation platform that makes customer communication inclusive, intelligent, and multilingual — Perfect Doc Studio is built for you.

Let’s make communication truly inclusive.