Empowering Accessibility

Breaking Barriers: CSA Group's Journey for Accessibility Certification

In a strategic move, CSA Group enlisted valantic, an esteemed OutSystems Elite Partner, to spearhead the development of a cutting-edge, user-centric application aimed at streamlining the inspection process for building accessibility within an ambitious timeframe and budget. This initiative sought to revolutionize the recognition of structures that not only meet but exceed prevailing accessibility standards, thereby actively contributing to the removal of barriers and unlocking the potential of individuals with disabilities.

Find more about Low-Code

A person with red hair and glasses, wearing a white lab coat, adjusts equipment in an anechoic chamber with soundproofing foam panels.

The Challenge

“As a company, one of our offerings is to develop web applications for clients relevant to our industry. Their immediate expectation is that these apps have the Apple or Amazon experience, and the reality is that our legacy systems have been very large, monolithic and difficult to use. So, as an organization, we recognized the need to invest in the digital experience layer to sit on top of our platforms or independent of them,” explains Farukh Javed, Chief Digital Officer at CSA Group.

Initially, CSA was thinking of partnering with creative agencies to develop this digital experience layer, but the proposals involved an effort of 6 to 10 months and required 15 to 30 different kinds of technology to work together. It was too big a risk, and CSA decided to look for alternatives. The OutSystems low-code platform was one of them and was picked as the technology solution.

A smartphone and a laptop displaying a building certification inquiry website, featuring various building projects and certification statuses.

The Solution

CSA Group selected valantic, an OutSystems Premier Partner, to develop the new user-centric app and meet an aggressive timeline and project budget. The goal was to automate the process of inspecting buildings for accessibility and recognizing those that meet or exceed existing standards, actively contributing to removing barriers and liberating the potential of people with disabilities.

The new Accessibility Certification Registry is a web-based platform with a public listing of certified buildings and a back-office management application. The assessment findings are published in a public portal that can be viewed here.

Deployed in just 16 weeks, the app had over 1000 users registered and 800 buildings going through the whole registration process in less than 6 months.

The Results

With more and more buildings going through the assessment process, removing barriers and liberating the potential of people with disabilities is taking a leap forward.

The new registry application ensures:

Self-service registration and requests for assessment through an intuitive portal
That online assessment and automated workflow improved and accelerated the overall process and aided in certifying quality to the highest standards.
A public portal promoting the buildings which have been certified in terms of accessibility.

Highlights

10,000+ loads tracked

Hundreds of users

Stellar customer feedback

Farukh Javed
Chief Digital Officer, CSA Group

”As a company, one of our offerings is to develop web applications for clients relevant to our industry. Their immediate expectation is that these apps have the Apple or Amazon experience, and the reality is that our legacy systems have been very large, monolithic and difficult to use. So, as an organization, we recognized the need to invest in the digital experience layer to sit on top of our platforms or independent of them.“

About CSA Group

CSA is a 100-year-old Canadian organization focused on developing standards for safety and sustainability. It has 9000 members, 3000 standards and codes in circulation, 35,000 customers, 2000 employees, and 39 offices across 14 countries.