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Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

PDF Accessibility Automation and Compliance Transformation using PDFix SDK

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1. Overview

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System  is the central banking authority of the United States. It oversees monetary policy, regulates financial institutions, and ensures economic stability.

The Federal Reserve produces thousands of PDF documents monthly, including:

  • Monetary policy reports
  • Financial stability reports
  • Regulatory filings
  • Regulatory guidelines to the public
  • Guidelines to financial institutions
  • Economic research papers

2. Business Challenges

Under Section 508, federal agencies must make their electronic and information technology (EIT) accessible to people with disabilities.

Additionally, recent federal directives – including Executive Order 14028, OMB Memorandum M-22-18, and M-23-16 – require federal agencies to adhere to strict secure software development practices when using third-party solutions that process, transmit, or store sensitive government information.

Key Regulatory Requirements:

  • Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act
  • Secure Software Development Attestation (EO 14028, M-22-18, M-23-16)
  • Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
  • PDF/UA

Many of these documents exceed 2,000 pages and originated from scanned sources, resulting in image-based PDFs lacking text recognition and proper tagging. Ensuring compliance while maintaining security was a critical challenge.

3. The Solution

Implementing PDFix SDK for Automated PDF Accessibility & Secure Document Processing

To meet both accessibility and security requirements, the Federal Reserve integrated PDFix SDK into its document processing application. The core features applied:

  • Optical Character Recognition (OCR): For scanned and image-based PDFs, PDFix SDK performs OCR to convert images into searchable and readable text.
  • Auto-Tagging: PDFix’s intelligent layout recognition engine automatically identifies and tags document elements. This ensures a logical reading order essential for assistive technologies.
  • Batch Processing: tenths pages/second per core

4. Implementation

  • Integration Flexibility – Seamlessly integrated into the Federal Reserve’s existing document system
  •  Secure Software Compliance – PDFix meets the Secure Software Development Attestation requirements ensuring secure handling of Federal Reserve documents.

5. Results

  • Efficiency: Significant reduction in time and resources required for PDF remediation.
  • Compliance: Consistent adherence to WCAG and PDF/UA standards across all published documents.
  • Cost & Time Savings – Eliminates the need for third-party remediation services.
  • Accessibility: Enhanced access to information for individuals with disabilities, aligning with the Board’s commitment to inclusivity.
  • Secure Software Assurance – PDFix ensures safe processing of sensitive documents.