Simply Readable
AI-powered document translation and Easy Read conversion, built by Swindon Borough Council for UK local government
Overview
Swindon Borough Council built Simply Readable to solve a real problem — then open-sourced it so every council can benefit. Now adopted by Edinburgh, Newport, Southampton, and West Berkshire.
Learning Artifact: This is a pre-deployed demonstration environment for learning and exploration, not a production-ready product.
Simply Readable brings together document translation and Easy Read conversion in a single web application. Upload a document, translate it into any of 75 languages using Amazon Translate, or convert it to Easy Read format using Amazon Bedrock — all in minutes, not weeks.
What you’ll explore
Core Features
| Feature | AWS Service |
|---|---|
| Document translation | Amazon Translate |
| Easy Read conversion | Amazon Bedrock |
| User authentication | Amazon Cognito |
| Real-time updates | AWS AppSync |
Infrastructure
| Component | AWS Service |
|---|---|
| Orchestration | AWS Step Functions |
| Compute | AWS Lambda |
| Storage | Amazon S3 |
| CDN | Amazon CloudFront |
| Database | Amazon DynamoDB |
Getting started
Once you select “Try this now” above, your session environment will begin deploying automatically.
1. Your environment deploys automatically
2. Follow the walkthrough to log in and explore
3. Upload documents and try translation and Easy Read conversion
Why This Matters for Local Government
Accessibility and inclusion
- Easy Read conversion makes complex documents accessible to people with learning disabilities
- Designed with “Experts by Experience” — Swindon residents with learning disabilities who co-designed the output format
- Supports compliance with the Equality Act 2010 and Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations
- Helps councils meet their duty to provide information in accessible formats
Multilingual communities
- 75 languages via Amazon Translate — from Arabic to Zulu
- Translation turnaround cut from 19 days to 14 minutes
- Consistent, on-demand service without booking external translators
- Particularly valuable for councils with diverse populations
Transformative cost savings
- 99.96% reduction in per-document translation costs
- Easy Read conversion at ~1p per page vs £120 per page from specialist agencies
- Swindon’s Paediatric Therapy team alone saved £64,000 annually
- No procurement process needed — deploy from open source
Proven in production
- Live in Swindon since 2023, handling real council documents daily
- Now adopted by Edinburgh, Newport, Southampton, and West Berkshire councils
- Published as an AWS Sample under MIT-0 licence
- Featured in the AWS Public Sector Case Study programme
About Simply Readable
Simply Readable was created by Swindon Borough Council to solve a genuine operational problem: the time and cost of translating documents for the borough’s multilingual communities, and converting them to Easy Read format for residents with learning disabilities.
£160 per document → 7p per document • 19-day turnaround → 14 minutes • 5 councils and counting
The problem
- Translation cost £160 per document on average
- Easy Read conversion cost £120 per page from agencies
- Turnaround took 19 working days
- Teams rationed translations, limiting who they could serve
The solution
- Built on AWS serverless architecture — no servers to maintain
- Uses Amazon Translate for 75-language support
- Uses Amazon Bedrock (Claude) for Easy Read conversion
- Web-based interface any council officer can use
The outcome
- Translation costs cut by 99.96%
- Available on demand — no booking, no waiting
- Co-designed with residents who use Easy Read
- Open-sourced for the whole public sector
“We went from rationing translations to offering them freely. Teams that never requested translations before now use the service daily.”
— Swindon Borough Council
Governance
Simply Readable is published as an AWS Sample under the MIT-0 licence, making it free for any organisation to use, modify, and deploy. The original innovation came from Swindon Borough Council, demonstrating what’s possible when local government leads on digital transformation.
The growing adoption by councils across the UK — from Edinburgh to Southampton — shows the power of councils sharing solutions with each other. When one council solves a problem, every council can benefit.
How this was built
This scenario is built on the open source Document Translation project, originally created by Swindon Borough Council and published as an AWS Sample. The NDX:Try deployment adapts it for the Innovation Sandbox environment using AWS CDK.
View the source code on GitHub (opens in new tab)
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Learn More
Troubleshooting
- Try button not working? Make sure you’re signed in to NDX
- Did not receive credentials? Check your spam folder, or wait a few minutes
- Cannot access the scenario? Ensure you’re using the correct AWS region (us-east-1)
- Budget exhausted early? Some services have higher costs - contact support if unexpected
Support
For technical issues during your sandbox session, contact the NDX team at ndx@dsit.gov.uk.