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Simply Readable Walkthrough

Step-by-step guide to exploring document translation and Easy Read powered by AWS

Explore Simply Readable

25 minutes to see how one council transformed accessibility

Swindon Borough Council built an open-source tool that cuts document translation costs by 99.96% and makes Easy Read accessible to every council. Deploy it via NDX:Try and explore it yourself.
99.96% Cost reduction From £160 to £0.07 per document
75 Languages supported Via Amazon Translate
14 min Turnaround time Down from 19 days
Developed with public sector, for public sector

Simply Readable was co-created with "Experts by Experience" -- people with learning disabilities who helped shape how Easy Read documents should look and feel. It is now adopted by councils including Edinburgh, Newport, Southampton, and West Berkshire, and it is available as an open-source AWS Sample for any organisation to deploy.

What you'll do

In this 25 minutes walkthrough, you'll:

  1. App accessed -- Find your credentials and access the deployed web application (3 minutes)
  2. Document translated -- Upload a document and translate it into another language (5 minutes)
  3. Easy Read created -- Convert a document to Easy Read format with AI-generated images (5 minutes)
  4. Features explored -- Discover multi-language support and additional capabilities (5 minutes)
  5. Architecture understood -- Learn how 12 AWS services work together to power the tool (7 minutes)

Before you start

Important You must have already requested the Simply Readable scenario via NDX:Try.

Deploy the Simply Readable scenario if you haven't already.

Important Deployment takes approximately 5 minutes. This provisions Cognito authentication, AppSync, Step Functions, and a React frontend on CloudFront.
Why does deployment take this long?

Simply Readable provisions 12 AWS services working together:

  • Amazon Cognito -- user authentication and identity pools
  • AWS AppSync -- real-time GraphQL API
  • AWS Step Functions -- orchestration workflows for translation and Easy Read
  • Amazon CloudFront -- global content delivery for the React frontend
  • Amazon Bedrock -- AI model access agreement for Claude 3 Haiku

The wait is worth it -- you get a fully functional document translation and Easy Read platform.

While you wait: Explore the CloudFormation Events tab to watch resources being created. You can also browse other areas of the AWS Console -- deployment continues in the background.

You'll need

  • Your CloudFormation stack to show CREATE_COMPLETE
  • The AppUrl from your stack's Outputs tab
  • The AdminUsername and AdminPassword from Outputs
  • A sample .docx document to upload (any short document will work)

What you'll learn

For service managers

  • How document translation works end-to-end
  • What Easy Read looks like with AI-generated images
  • The cost savings compared to traditional methods
  • How other councils are already using this

For technical teams

  • How 12 AWS services orchestrate together
  • Event-driven architecture with Step Functions
  • Identity-scoped S3 storage patterns
  • Serverless deployment with no running servers

Key capabilities

Document Translation

Translate .docx documents into 75 languages while preserving formatting

Easy Read

Simplify complex documents with AI-generated plain language and images

Job Dashboard

Track translation and Easy Read jobs with real-time status updates

Learn more about Simply Readable

Start walkthrough

Takes approximately 25 minutes

Need help?

If you're stuck, check the troubleshooting section or contact us.