From Obligation to Excellence:
Fully Automated Creation
of Accessible Documents
at THE ERGO Group

The countdown was on:

The European Accessibility Act set a clear deadline – and ITERGO Informations-technologie GmbH, the central IT provider of ERGO Group AG, had to ensure in a very short time that millions of documents could be delivered in an accessible, legally compliant format. Yet there was no product on the market capable of handling the diversity of ERGO’s document landscape. One thing was clear: Without a suitable, scalable solution, legal consequences, major operational workload, and serious reputational damage would have been likely.

Together with ITERGO, the existing Compart solution was expanded within twelve months with a script‑based process capable of processing the entire range of ERGO documents – fully automated, scalable, and without any manual effort in daily operations. The project clearly exceeded regulatory requirements: Instead of merely meeting the minimum standard, it delivered a solution that benefits all users.

Every year, ITERGO produces millions of documents – complex, highly diverse layouts including tables, graphics, and dynamic content.  Many of them were not accessible to screen readers: missing alternative text, unclear reading order, low contrast, or entire text sections embedded entirely as images. Yet all of these documents needed to be transformed automatically and without any manual post-processing into fully accessible, PDF/UA-compliant files. Until the start of the project,  accessibility had only been addressed  selectively and handled on a case-by-case basis.

As the deadline for the European Accessibility Act approached, it became clear that a sustainable, holistic solution was needed – and fast. But the market offered no technology capable of addressing these requirements at scale. For ITERGO, it was clear that simply achieving the minimum standard was not enough. Instead, the company viewed the legal obligation as a real opportunity to strategically integrate accessibility into its entire document production process – combining inclusion with efficient communication.

As a long-standing partner, Compart was already firmly established at ITERGO. With DocBridge® Mill Plus, the company has been processing around 120 million PDF pages annually for years. In addition, Compart offered a standard solution with its Accessibility Designer, which classifies existing documents via workflow and automatically tags them based on defined rule sets. This approach is particularly suitable for large volumes of standardized documents with fixed layouts. The necessary expertise was therefore already in place. When accessibility moved onto the agenda, confidence was high – and the vision clear: accessibility should be implemented fully automatically and without any manual post-processing.

A new approach to handle heterogeneous documents

The wide variety and complexity of the documents made it impossible to use the existing template‑based standard method. ITERGO and Compart therefore opted for an approach that dynamically generates individual rule sets for PDF/UA creation.

This dynamic approach is script‑based and consists of three fully automated stages:

Through optional pre‑conversion, nearly all document types can be transformed into accessible PDFs. This enables the processing of formats that are typically unsuitable for traditional PDF/UA workflows.

A key strength is the automated handling of all graphics. The solution reliably detects every graphic and automatically assigns a preconfigured alternative text.This step  requires only an initial expert configuration – after that, the process performs the complete assignment independently and without any further manual effort. Only this automatic treatment of all graphical content makes the solution truly accessible and suitable for large‑scale use. The result is genuinely fully automated PDF/UA generation – with no post-processing required.

Agile and hands‑on to full production readiness

Development proceeded in short, iterative cycles, with continuous testing and refinement until the solution was stable and production-ready. Complex, visually rich documents posed particular accessibility challenges. These insights led ITERGO to establish clear accessibility-focused design guidelines with agencies and specialist teams, ensuring future layouts are inclusive by design.

Another key focus was integration into the online completion processes, where speed is critical. Even under heavy load, documents must be transformed within seconds so end customers can complete transactions without delay. The solution was optimized to reliably generate even complex documents within this tight time frame.

The collaboration between Ergo, Compart and Canon – which provided project management, infrastructure, and integration with supporting systems – was crucial to success.

“Excellent collaboration and a very focused, goal‑oriented teamwork between internal and external colleagues,” says Michael Adamitzki. “It comes down to the people and a shared commitment to achieving the best possible outcome.” This resulted in a solution that was created in less than twelve months, operates fully automatically, requires no post-processing, and integrates seamlessly into the existing infrastructure.

“You rarely experience a project where technology, attitude, and speed align so perfectly. Within just a year, a legal obligation became a beacon for digital inclusion.”
Arno Vullhorst Projektleiter, Canon Deutschland GmbH

ITERGO views accessibility not as a completed project, but as an ongoing process.

The next steps are already defined:

• Monitoring: Continuous quality checks and measurable results
• Multilingual Support: Expansion for international markets
• Versioning: Future versions for different target groups – for example, dedicated versions for sighted and blind users in marketing to avoid design compromises.

Beyond that, ITERGO is exploring creative enhance-ments, such as using sound sequences as an addi-tional layer of accessibility.

“This was a real no‑brainer for us,” says Adamitzki. “With Compart, we not only created the foundation for accessible documents, but established a solution that simply works: fully automatic, maintenance‑free, and requiring no post-processing – for all documents, in all areas.”