Accessible workplace, inaccessible workflows: mandatory documents, challenges and workarounds in accessible onboarding
Scott Hollier, Justin Brown, Ruchi Permvattana · 2025 · Proceedings of the 22nd International Web for All Conference (W4A) · doi:10.1145/3744257.3744265
Summary
This short paper presents a lived-experience case study from the Centre For Accessibility Australia (CFAA), a not-for-profit accessibility auditing organization where 9 of 12 staff have lived experience of disability, including the legally blind director who uses screen readers. The paper examines the accessibility barriers encountered when completing a mandatory Australian Taxation Office (ATO) Tax File Declaration (TFD) form required for onboarding all new employees. The TFD form is only available as a PDF document that must be completed by both employer and employee, creating a critical workflow bottleneck for the organization. The authors conduct a detailed analysis of the form's specific accessibility failures when used with NVDA through Adobe Reader: form field labels are not properly associated (e.g., "Australian Business Number ABN" is read instead of the full question), some fields have no labels at all (the user hears only "yes" and "no" without knowing the question), dropdown buttons are labeled only as "button" without indicating what they control, fields appear to have been copied from other questions retaining wrong labels, and the "Declaration by payee" signature section is completely invisible to the screen reader. While an accessible online HTML version exists through the MyGov portal for the employee section, once completed it must be printed — reintroducing an inaccessible step for the employer. The authors also evaluated third-party recruitment platforms but found widespread accessibility issues including missing alt text, poor color contrast, keyboard-inaccessible navigation, inaccessible iframes, and inadequate form labeling and error handling.
Key findings
The CFAA's workaround involves creating a bespoke accessible Word document that captures all required TFD information in plain-language questions. Both employer and employee fill in their respective versions, which are then sent to a sighted administrative officer who manually transcribes the information into the official ATO PDF form. This functional but inefficient process highlights how a single inaccessible government document can force an entire organization to develop parallel workflows, adding time, cost, and dependency on sighted assistance. The paper identifies a telling irony: while PDF accessibility has improved in recent years, the format still lacks many of the descriptive techniques available in HTML for enhancing content accessibility. The ATO form shows evidence that some form labeling was attempted but implemented incorrectly — indicating that partial accessibility efforts without proper testing can create false confidence while still failing assistive technology users. The case also reveals that even when accessible digital alternatives exist (the MyGov online form), the overall workflow can remain inaccessible if any step in the chain requires print or inaccessible formats.
Relevance
This paper powerfully illustrates how mandatory government documents can create systemic accessibility barriers in employment, even for organizations that specialize in accessibility. The case study is particularly compelling because CFAA is uniquely positioned to identify and articulate these barriers — if an accessibility-focused organization with expert staff cannot make the onboarding process work accessibly, the challenges for other employers hiring people with disabilities are likely far worse. For accessibility practitioners and policymakers, the key takeaway is that accessible workplaces require accessible end-to-end workflows, not just accessible individual documents or tools. A single inaccessible link in a mandatory process chain can undermine an otherwise inclusive workplace. The paper also demonstrates the ongoing gap between accessibility standards and real-world government document compliance, and the hidden labor that people with disabilities and their organizations must invest in creating workarounds for systemic inaccessibility.
Tags: PDF accessibility · workplace accessibility · government forms · screen readers · document accessibility · lived experience · onboarding
Standards referenced: WCAG