How Accessibility Becomes a Corporate Standard: The Journey of Telekom MMS

Why a Specialized Department Alone Is Not Enough

As part of the Telekom Group, Telekom MMS produces numerous documents for internal and external purposes. With the European Accessibility ACT (EAA) coming into force, PDF documents intended for consumers have to comply with legal accessibility requirements.

The challenge: Accessible documents had previously been revised centrally by the department for digital accessibility. However, post-processing is labor-intensive, time-consuming, and not sustainable in the long term. Although Telekom MMS has a specialized department with the necessary expertise, it could no longer handle the growing demand for accessible documents on its own. A solution was therefore needed that would embed accessibility directly into employees’ daily work routines.

Enabling Accessibility Where Documents Are Created

Telekom MMS relies on axesWord to integrate accessibility directly into the document creation process. Employees receive targeted training to create accessible documents independently in Microsoft Word. axesWord integrates seamlessly into existing workflows, enabling simple and practical implementation in everyday work. The specialized department for digital accessibility additionally supports other divisions within the group during implementation and ensures sustainable, company-wide adoption.

Josephine Schwebler, Telekom MMS:

“True document accessibility [...] must start where people create documents.”

What Has Changed at Telekom MMS

Thanks to axesWord, Telekom MMS has been able to establish accessibility in a scalable and sustainable way across the company. The legal requirements of the European Accessibility Act can now be implemented efficiently without overburdening central resources. At the same time, the capacity of the specialized department can be used more strategically, as accessibility is integrated into everyday work processes in a decentralized manner. In this way, Telekom MMS sends a clear signal of quality and expertise both within the group and externally.