Every family, every document: our partnership with CivicPlus

At ParentSquare, we believe school communication only works when it reaches every family. That means a message has to arrive in a language a parent can read, on a device they actually use, in a format that works for them, including families who rely on screen readers or other assistive technology.

Accessibility has never been a checkbox for us. ParentSquare Smart Sites are built to meet WCAG 2.1 and 2.2 Level AA standards, so districts start with an accessible website from day one. But every school website also holds content districts create themselves, especially PDFs like handbooks, calendars, forms, and menus that are uploaded every week. Those documents need to be accessible too. That’s why we’ve partnered with CivicPlus®: Smart Sites customers can now add DocAccess, a solution that automatically creates accessible HTML versions of PDFs, helping districts make important school documents easier for everyone to access.

The challenge with PDFs on school websites

Even on a fully accessible website, the documents a district uploads can create barriers. Think about how much important information a district shares as a PDF: parent and student handbooks, bell schedules, school calendars, permission slips, medical consent forms, lunch menus, and board documents. For many families, these files are the main way they learn what’s happening at school.

But PDFs are notoriously difficult to make accessible. Many screen readers can’t read them properly; they don’t resize well on a phone, and they can’t be translated easily. A parent with low vision or who speaks a language other than English can be shut out of information.

Fixing this manually is a huge lift. Remediating PDFs one at a time takes specialized skills and hours of staff time, and new documents are posted every week. Districts need a solution that keeps up on its own.

Introducing DocAccess for ParentSquare Smart Sites customers

CivicPlus is a leader in technology for local governments and schools, and its DocAccess solution was built to solve exactly this problem: making the PDFs a district posts every week readable with a screen reader, on a phone, and in a family’s preferred language, without staff remediating each file by hand. 

DocAccess works alongside the accessibility already built into Smart Sites, focusing on the documents districts upload. Once it’s activated, current and future PDFs open in a clean, mobile-friendly DocAccess view, with no extra steps for staff.

We chose to partner with CivicPlus because their approach to accessibility matches ours. DocAccess was shaped by the disability community, and it’s designed around the people who use it, not just the rules it helps districts meet. As Carter Temm, Senior Accessibility Consultant and Disability Advocate, explains in why accessibility isn’t about compliance, the real goal is making sure every person can take part. For schools, that means helping every parent access important information, from school calendars and permission slips to student handbooks and district updates.

What DocAccess means for families and staff

For families, DocAccess turns a frustrating file into something they can actually use:

For district and school staff, DocAccess removes the manual work:

Our commitment continues

This partnership is one part of a bigger promise: to help districts reach every family, no matter what language they speak, what device they use, or how they access information. Smart Sites already gives districts an accessible website foundation, and DocAccess builds on that commitment by helping make school documents more accessible to the families who rely on them. Learn more about our approach to accessibility.

Ready to make your district’s documents accessible to every family? Learn more about DocAccess for ParentSquare customers and request information from the CivicPlus team. Be sure to ask about current offers for ParentSquare customers.