DocAccess Is Leaving Beta — A New Chapter for Accessible Public Documents

When we introduced DocAccess earlier this year, we knew we were stepping into one of the hardest challenges in digital accessibility: making public PDFs reliably accessible for every resident, especially those who rely on assistive technology.

Since then, hundreds of agencies have joined us in shaping, testing, and refining DocAccess through its beta phase. We’re excited to share that DocAccess will officially graduate from beta on December 31.

In simple terms, “beta” is the early stage where agencies use the product in real conditions while we continue strengthening it based on their feedback. Graduating from beta means DocAccess is now more reliable, supported by legal experts, ready to handle the challenging edge cases, and ready for use at scale.

This moment reflects not just product maturity, but a shared effort. DocAccess is what it is today because of the agencies, testers, and partners who walked alongside us, gave honest feedback, and believed in the mission.

Why Now?

Over the past several months, our team has been focused on strengthening DocAccess in three key ways:

1. Reliability and Quality of Accessible Transcripts

We’ve dramatically improved the accuracy and consistency of our OCR and transcript generation. Complex scans, tables, and forms now process more cleanly, and fallback scenarios have been reduced significantly. This was not easy. We had to completely rethink how to combat hallucination, ensure multi-page context, and even pioneer new techniques to aim for suggested by Carter Temm, like providing a companion table for every graph.

2. Stability and Performance at Scale

As usage grew, we reinforced document detection, improved scan speeds, upgraded our serving layer, and added deeper monitoring so that transcripts load quickly and reliably, even during periods of high traffic.

3. A Smoother, More Predictable Experience for Agencies

We’ve tightened the onboarding flow, resolved early-stage bugs, clarified system behavior, and improved visibility for agency users.

These improvements — many directly informed by our beta partners — bring DocAccess to a level of stability and reliability we’re proud to call production-ready.

Thank You to Our Early Testers and Partners

This milestone wouldn’t exist without the people who rolled up their sleeves with us.

A special thank you to: Carter Temm, who organized community feedback groups across the country, Shawn Jordison, Vicki Walton (SBCTC), Denise Robinson, Geena Harper, and the many volunteers and leaders at Knowbility — who served as key testers and advisors through the most critical phases of development. Your time, insight, and honesty shaped this product in meaningful ways.

And to every agency, accessibility professional, and early adopter who provided feedback, shared edge cases, reported bugs, and let us iterate alongside you: you helped us get here. DocAccess truly reflects a community effort.

What This Means for Agencies — And for Accessibility

Leaving beta isn’t just about product readiness. It’s about impact.

For Public Agencies

DocAccess now provides a stable, compliance-grade system designed for the long term. You can rely on consistent transcripts, predictable behavior, and a platform built specifically for government-scale accessibility.

For People with Disabilities

More accessible documents mean more equal access to civic life. Through DocAccess, millions of previously inaccessible PDFs have been transformed — and with the platform moving out of beta, this impact will only accelerate.

What’s Next

Graduating from beta allows us to move faster on:

• Support for more document types
• Expanded monitoring tools
• Deeper document analytics
• Preparedness for upcoming federal accessibility regulations
• Enhanced customization options
• Continued refinement of performance at scale

We’re just getting started.

Thank You

To every person, agency, and partner who has walked with us through beta: thank you. Your support, patience, feedback, and advocacy have shaped DocAccess in powerful ways.

As DocAccess enters its next chapter, we remain committed to building a more accessible and inclusive digital future for every community.