Accessibility in the Financial Sector: How the FMA Brought Structure to 4,000 Documents

Around 800 web pages, 5,600 articles, and approximately 4,000 documents: this was the scale of the challenge facing the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) when digital accessibility became mandatory. “Oh God, how are we going to make all of this accessible?” recalls Anastasia Scoppetta, Press Officer at the FMA. Since the website relaunch in 2016, digital accessibility had already played a key role for web content. From 2020 onward, PDF documents were added to the scope.

To approach the task in a structured way, the FMA established a project team of 15 experts from editorial, communications, and IT departments. The objectives were clear but demanding: make existing documents accessible retroactively and establish processes enabling around 250 employees to independently create accessible documents in the future.

For the remediation of existing documents, the FMA commissioned an external service provider. At the same time, the internal project team developed new workflows and trained employees in accessible document creation. Early workshops revealed another critical factor: the corporate design itself had to be adapted to enable long-term accessibility.

In collaboration with a design agency, a new accessible visual identity was developed, including optimized color contrast, suitable fonts, and simplified layouts. Based on this foundation, standardized templates were created to ensure consistent and accessible document production across the organization.

axesWord and axesPDF were integrated into internal workflows and now ensure that documents are created efficiently, consistently, and in compliance with legal requirements.

Today, accessibility at the FMA is no longer a special initiative but an integral part of every publication process. Standardized templates, the integration of axesWord and axesPDF, and continuous internal communication have ensured that accessibility is considered and implemented across the organization.

Ongoing awareness-raising among employees remains a priority, as every new publication is an opportunity to further embed accessibility. What began as a project has evolved into a mindset: document accessibility is now standard at the FMA and part of a long-term quality strategy.