Municipal World, Polar Imaging partner for AODA Compliance
One of the most common and complex compliance challenges facing municipalities today is ensuring that public‑facing documents are accessible under Canadian accessibility laws. Photo: Adobe Stock
One of the most common and complex compliance challenges facing municipalities today is ensuring that public‑facing documents are accessible under Canadian accessibility laws. These include the Accessible Canada Act (ACA) and, in Ontario, the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 (AODA).
For Steve Todd, director of business development at Polar Imaging Inc., this challenging reality is one he understands well.
“There’s just so much information, and you have a lot of legacy files that might be available on your website that need to be made accessible,” Todd said. “Traditional processes to do that are just slow. I mean, traditionally, it’s a manual process. It takes a long time to turn around.”
Path to Digital Accessibility
Todd said there are numerous paths within the municipal space when it comes to ensuring digital accessibility.
For one, a municipality may choose to handle the work in‑house, using its own software and tools. Alternatively, they could outsource the work to professional remediators. But a third, and more problematic, situation is that they are not doing anything. They know they need to act, but Todd speculates they are unsure where to start.
Todd said there are tools available today that offer partial automation of the digitization process, but typically only about 35 per cent of the work is automated. Even with these tools, municipalities still need in‑house staff or expert remediators to complete the remaining 60 to 70 per cent of the work.
This is where Polar Imaging’s experience comes into play, Todd said. Polar Imaging has more than two decades of experience supporting municipalities with document management, digitization, and compliance initiatives.
This experience and familiarity with the municipal sector led Polar Imaging to partner with the group that created Accessibility on Demand (AoD), a solution designed to help municipalities make steady, manageable progress toward digital accessibility. The idea behind AoD is to automate up to 95 per cent of the document remediation process.
As Todd said, one of AoD’s key advantages is its simplicity. A user uploads a PDF, clicks “make accessible,” and the system processes it using the company’s proprietary backend technology, enhanced with AI. And it runs a parallel environment. Todd, only half‑joking, said someone could upload a million files at once and AoD would process them all simultaneously.
“What people are trying to do now is either just go on their websites and get rid of these PDFs so they’re not sitting there or they’re scrambling to try to make them accessible,” Todd said. “And, I guess, thirdly, what they’re doing is putting in a little note on their site that says, ‘We understand that these aren’t accessible. If you need them accessible, let us know and we’ll make them accessible for you.’ That’s not a solution.”
Seeing Problems, Finding Solutions
Todd said digital accessibility is a challenge for all municipalities, and the AoD platform was built to address it.
Polar Imaging is part of a group of 20 similar North American companies that came together as a kind of think tank. When the companies met, they discussed shared challenges, and PDF accessibility was a recurring concern.
People were coming to Polar Imaging, which has been in the document management space since 2001, because they did not have a great solution to their digital accessibility problem.
Todd said the company relied on expert remediators: clients submitted documents to Polar Imaging, which then forwarded them to a third party using existing tools. But this approach wasn’t viable, and the group concluded there had to be a better way. So, the group came together and created AoD.
Todd said the impact of AoD cannot be overstated.
“I’ve never had anything in my 22 years working with Polar Imaging where we’ve had a product or service with this much interest – that I’m booking this many meetings and having this many people wanting to try this out,” Todd said. “A lot of people think it’s too good to be true, and then they’re finding out that it’s not, which is great for us – and them.”
Reality of Digital Deadlines
With digital accessibility now mandated, Todd said many municipalities are feeling the pressure.
Todd explained that the deadline for achieving accessibility has been postponed multiple times. As Polar Imaging spoke with municipal staff and attended conferences, he said many believed the deadline would continue to be extended.
Now that municipalities realize the deadline will not be extended further – using Ontario as an example – Todd said he sees a rush toward digital compliance.
That urgency is one reason Polar Imaging is partnering with Municipal World to bring AoD to a national audience, Todd said.
Todd noted that the two companies have had a relationship for nearly 20 years. Polar Imaging originally digitized Municipal World magazines onto microfilm, and the relationship has continued ever since.
This is one reason a partnership, Todd said, made so much sense.
“Obviously, looking at Municipal World and this product, AoD, and having so much success in the municipal space, it made a whole lot of sense to partner with Municipal World because you are sort of the experts – the go-to for municipalities,” Todd said. “So, when you’re looking for new exciting things and to be that authority, I guess, we kind of figured, sure, why not.”
Taking Pride in Success
As Canadian accessibility legislation tightens, municipalities across the country are racing to ensure their public‑facing documents are accessible to all residents. For accessibility specialists like Todd, the work is about far more than regulatory compliance.
Todd emphasizes that the company’s core mission behind document remediation has always been inclusion.
Municipalities are increasingly aware of their legal obligations under federal and provincial accessibility laws, but Todd argues that the real value lies in what communities gain when they take accessibility seriously. Ensuring equal access to council reports, planning documents, bylaws, and public notices allows residents with visual impairments to participate fully in civic life – something that has not always been possible.
Without accessible documents, Todd said, the information is essentially locked away from someone who is visually impaired.
“Making sure that these documents are tagged and give them the exact same experience that anybody else would have is really the mission of where all of this started,” Todd said. “It’s more than just complying; it’s about giving individuals who are visually impaired the ability to consume the documents the way they should be.”
More than Financial Goals
While AoD offers Polar Imaging a path to financial success, Todd emphasized that providing these services is about more than business.
For Todd and his team, the true measure of success isn’t the number of documents converted or contracts signed. It’s the moment when someone who was once excluded can finally access the same information as everyone else.
“For us to be able to come to market and solve such a problem, to close this huge gap, is huge,” he said. “It’s a humbling experience. We’ve always liked solving problems, and hearing feedback from people who are genuinely excited reinforces what we’re doing here. That is the real success of getting this out there.” SM
✯ Municipal World Executive and Essentials Plus Members: You might also be interested in Maureen O’Neal’s article: Digital-first strategy led to award-winning technology in Waterloo Region.
Sean Meyer is digital content editor for Municipal World.
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