AI-Assisted Web Accessibility Review and Enhancement

Accessibility · Employment & Work

What it collects

Operational data

Anonymized data

Word documents, PDF files, HTML, Excel, CSV, and image files related to web content that GC employees submit for conversion and accessibility enhancement. These files contain no personal information.

Run by: Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED)
Where: No fixed location
Kept: Not stated by the Helpful Places.
Shared with: Accountable organization
Your copy: You cannot see the data it holds about you. What you can do

What it is for

Accessibility

Employment & Work

AWARE is a pilot AI system used by Government of Canada employees at Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada to automate and improve web publishing workflows. It converts documents in formats like Word, PDF, and Excel into standards-compliant HTML5 content, and helps meet web accessibility requirements. The system processes web content files — not personal information — and its use of AI is disclosed to users.

What it collects and what happens to it

Data taken in

Operational data

Anonymized data

Word documents, PDF files, HTML, Excel, CSV, and image files related to web content that GC employees submit for conversion and accessibility enhancement. These files contain no personal information.

Processing

Language Models

The system uses AI language capabilities to interpret source documents and generate standards-compliant web code, facilitating language translation and structured content transformation.

What it does

Creating (Generative AI)

Human decides

AWARE generates compliant HTML5 content, JSON, MathML, and JavaScript from source documents. GC employees review and approve the generated content before publication.

Understanding (Semantic AI)

Human decides

The system understands and interprets multi-format source content (Word, PDF, HTML, Excel, CSV, images) to extract structure and meaning before transforming it into accessible web formats.

Outputs

Generated content

Anonymized data

Compliant HTML5 content, JSON, MathML, and JavaScript generated from source documents for publication on Government of Canada websites. Output contains no personal information.

Run by

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED)

The federal department that deploys and operates the AWARE pilot to automate web publishing workflows for Government of Canada employees.

Government of Canada AI Register — AWARE

Built by

Government of Canada

The Government of Canada developed the AWARE system, which is in a pilot phase and has not been sourced from a third-party vendor.

Government of Canada AI Register — AWARE

Kept for

Not stated by the Helpful Places.

Shared with

Available to the accountable organization

Processed web content and outputs are available to Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada employees as part of the internal web publishing workflow.

Not available to me

As the system processes only non-personal web content files used by GC employees, members of the public have no data about themselves in the system and no individual data access applies.

Stored

Not stated by the Helpful Places.

How to read the colours

Can it identify you?

Anonymized data: Data about people with the link to who is broken. Stripped of identifiers, blurred, aggregated, or noised so this system can’t reasonably tie a record back to an individual.
Pseudonymous data: Each person’s data is tied to a token (hash, ID, template) that lets this system recognise the same person across events, but the token itself doesn’t reveal a name. Reidentification is possible with extra information.
Identifiable data: The data either contains a direct identifier (name, address, account name, recognisable face or voice, plate number) or carries a token this system uses to look up legal identity during processing.

Who completes the loop?

Human decides: This mode suggests; a person decides what to do next. The AI is always advisory — a human is in the loop on every decision. Example: a triage tool ranks cases for a clinician who chooses which to see first.
Human executes: This mode decides; a person carries out the result. Example: an optimizer plans the day’s trash-collection routes, and drivers run them.
Autonomous: This mode decides and acts on its own. No person reviews each decision or carries out the resulting action.

Definitions from the DTPR standard. Amber is about your data, violet about who decides. The fuller the shape and the deeper the colour, the more identifying the data or the less a person is involved.

What you can do

Ask about this system

Questions go to the Helpful Places, not the vendor.

Your rights

Right to Be Informed of AI UseGC employees using the AWARE system are informed that AI is being used to assist with web content processing. The register confirms AI use is disclosed to users.
Right to Algorithmic TransparencyInformation about the AWARE system's purpose and capabilities is publicly available through the Government of Canada's AI Register, providing transparency about how the system processes web content.

Risks and safeguards

Reputational harmAI-generated HTML5 or other code may contain errors, produce non-compliant output, or introduce unintended content that could misrepresent Government of Canada web pages.Safeguard: The system is currently in a pilot phase; GC employees review and approve generated content before publication, maintaining human oversight over final outputs.
Societal & cultural harmAutomated language translation capabilities may introduce inaccuracies in official bilingual (English/French) Government of Canada web content, potentially undermining Canada's official languages obligations.Safeguard: Human review by GC employees is required before publication; the pilot phase allows for iterative quality assessment and improvement before broader deployment.