STOR: A collaborative approach to accessible Parliamentary Research

In response to evolving legal obligations under the European Accessibility Act (EAA) and a growing demand for inclusive, digital-first publishing, STOR aims to replace static PDF-based outputs with a dynamic, standards-compliant web platform.

Working closely with the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) and the Library & Research Service (L&RS), the project will deliver a suite of integrated tools and websites that support authors in producing high-quality, accessible research content. These tools will be underpinned by robust metadata management, intuitive content creation workflows and document-level access controls.

STOR is grounded in the principles of accessibility (POUR) and data stewardship (FAIR), ensuring that parliamentary research is not only discoverable and usable, but also future-proofed for evolving technologies, legal standards and user needs.

What is the problem we are trying to solve?

The STOR project is envisaged to improve access to Oireachtas research with a focus on ease of use, findability and accessibility in a platform built with a mobile-first and user-centred design approach.

The European Accessibility Act (EAA), formally enacted in Ireland as S.I. No. 636/2023, became legally binding on 28 June 2025. It requires organisations that provide in-scope products and services—including digital documents like PDFs—to ensure these are accessible to people with disabilities.

Under the EAA, customer-facing PDFs such as reports, brochures and forms must meet accessibility standards like WCAG 2.1 AA and PDF/UA and be compatible with assistive technologies such as screen readers.

Currently, many research outputs produced by PBO and L&RS are published in PDF format, which are difficult to bring up to standard. Through STOR, we are actively collaborating with both sections to raise awareness of their legal responsibilities and to provide tools that make accessible publishing effortless and sustainable.

This initiative not only addresses compliance risks but also enhances the usability and reach of parliamentary research for all users, including those with disabilities.

Project goals

• Transition away from PDFs as the primary format for research outputs, moving towards accessible, digital-first publishing.

• Empower PBO and L&RS with intuitive tools and workflows that support accessible content creation and metadata management.

• Deliver a suite of websites and applications that align with the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) and ensure all content adheres to the POUR accessibility standards (Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, Robust).

• Implement document-level access control, enabling secure and flexible sharing of research across internal and external audiences.

• Support multilingual publishing, ensuring content is available in both Irish and English.

• Enable version tracking and metadata-driven discoverability, ensuring research outputs remain current, connected and contextually rich.

Project requirements

This project will deliver key outputs, all of which will be hosted on the Houses of the Oireachtas’s servers.

Portal – article creation platform

The portal will be a centralised, web-based platform designed to support the creation and publication of research articles by PBO and L&RS. It will offer a rich set of tools to help authors communicate their work clearly and effectively, including:

• Integrated data visualisation tools for creating graphs, charts and interactive elements directly within articles.

• Accessibility-first design, ensuring that authors are guided to meet legal standards (e.g. requiring alt text for images, providing heading structure prompts and offering real-time accessibility checks).

• Content reuse and versioning, allowing authors to build upon previous work, repurpose sections, and maintain a consistent research narrative over time.

• Metadata administration at the point of publication.

• User-friendly interface, designed to be intuitive for non-technical users.

• Multilingual support, enabling content creation and publication in both Irish and English.

• Role-based access controls, allowing different levels of permissions for authors, editors, and administrators.

The Portal is a purpose-built content creation environment tailored to the needs of parliamentary research authors.

Schema administration

A schema administration tool is envisaged as a web-based application designed to support the creation, editing and management of metadata for research. It may be developed in-house and will play a central role in ensuring that content is discoverable, consistent, and aligned with FAIR principles.

The tool will generate or update metadata associated with each article, capturing key information such as title, author, publication date, keywords and accessibility attributes. This metadata will support external discoverability.

To make metadata creation as seamless as possible for authors, this tool will feature an intuitive interface. The goal is to reduce complexity and ensure metadata is applied consistently across all outputs.

The tool will integrate directly with the article creation portal, automatically triggering metadata generation and validation when an article is published. This ensures that metadata is not an afterthought, but a built-in part of the publishing workflow.

Internal website

An internally facing research website will allow Members and staff to explore parliamentary research. It will be fully responsive, built with a mobile-first and user-centred design approach.

This standalone site will facilitate:

• Uploading and categorising publications

• Reading and downloading content

• Search functionality

• Accessibility features

• Multilingual support

The internal website will share infrastructure with the external site (STOR) as part of the wider publication pipeline and function similarly to the pre-live environment used for the current Oireachtas website.

STOR – External website

STOR will be a public-facing website showcasing a subset of research from the internal site.

Key features include internal site features and, additionally:

• Search and citation tools

• Accessibility support

• Mailchimp integration

Content can be pushed from the internal website to the public-facing STOR website, allowing new features to be tested internally before public release. While the sites will serve different audiences, their design and structure must remain aligned.

Definitions

Member – A Member of either House of the Oireachtas.

Responsiveness – Designing web pages to render well on a variety of devices and window or screen sizes to ensure usability and satisfaction.

Accessibility – This phrase has two potential meanings within the scope of the project:

• Digital accessibility is design consideration that ensures everyone can perceive, understand, navigate and interact with information on the website.

• Metadata accessibility is a data structure consideration that ensures a user can know how to access, possibly including authentication and authorisation.

Document – A research output that has traditionally been produced as a PDF.

Article – A body of work representing a research output that would previously have been delivered as a document.

Portal – The article creation platform, which enables authors to create, edit and publish articles in a digital-first format.

ElasticSearch – Text search engine to power document search.

POUR Principles – "Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust" are the four foundational principles of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which guide the creation of accessible digital content:

• Perceivable – Content must be presented in ways that users can perceive, such as providing alt text for images, captions for videos and transcripts for audio.

• Operable – Users must be able to interact with the interface using various input methods (e.g., keyboard, screen reader, voice commands).

• Understandable – Content and navigation must be clear, predictable, and easy to comprehend, supporting users with diverse cognitive abilities.

• Robust – Content must be compatible with current and future technologies, including assistive tools like screen readers, through clean and standards-compliant code.

FAIR Principles – A set of guidelines for making data and metadata more useful and reusable:

• Findable – Data and metadata should be easily discoverable by humans and machines, using persistent identifiers and rich metadata.

• Accessible – Data should be retrievable using standard protocols, with clearly defined access conditions.

• Interoperable – Data should be compatible with other datasets and systems, using shared formats, vocabularies and standards.

• Reusable – Data should be well-documented, with clear licensing and provenance information to support future use.

Potential solution: System architecture overview

 

The STOR platform integrates a suite of tools and services to support the creation, management, translation and publication of accessible parliamentary research. The architecture ensures seamless metadata handling, multilingual publishing, persistent identification and scalable search.

Core components and interactions

Article creation portal
Authors draft and manage articles, triggering metadata generation and accessibility checks. Articles are prepared for publication in both Irish and English.

Schema administration tool
Manages structured metadata, ensuring consistency, discoverability and compliance with FAIR principles.

Elasticsearch
Indexes metadata to power search, filtering, analytics and API integrations. Supports multilingual indexing and citation metadata.

Translation service API
Enables automated and manual translation of articles and static content. Translation status and language metadata are stored and indexed in Elasticsearch.

DOI registration service
Assigns persistent identifiers to eligible articles via external DOI agencies (e.g., DataCite). DOIs are stored in metadata and embedded in published pages.

Internal website
Hosts the full set of research outputs with access controls. Supports translation workflows and exports curated content to the external site.

External website (STOR)
Public-facing site showcasing selected research. Mirrors the internal site’s structure and design and leverages Elasticsearch for discoverability.

Specific requirements

The following outlines the initial specific functional and technical requirements for the STOR project.

Article generation portal

This architecture supports scalable draft management, secure data storage and efficient publishing workflows.

Author access and workspace

• Access to the Portal will be restricted to authenticated authors via individual accounts.

• Each author will have a personalised home screen where they can create, edit and manage articles within their section.

• Authors will be able to update their personal information.

• All user interactions will be secured via authenticated sessions, with role-based access control and audit logging to ensure data integrity and privacy.

Content creation and ingestion

• Authors can create articles from scratch using a user-friendly editor.

• The Portal will support uploading of documents preserving structural elements such as headings, footnotes, figures, and images.

• Supported formats include Microsoft Word, Markdown, and LaTeX. The ingestion process will:

  • Clean up Word-generated HTML.

  • Map document hierarchy to semantic HTML (e.g., converting multiple Heading 1s to appropriate subheadings).

  • Preserve metadata and write it to Elastic Search for schema integration.

  • Optimise images for performance across devices.

  • Detect and display structured content from text-based PDFs (not image-based PDFs).

Accessibility and metadata

• Accessibility will be a core design principle, aligned with WCAG 2.1 AA standards.

• Before publishing, authors must run an accessibility check to identify and address any issues.

• The system will not block publication but will flag errors and provide an accessibility report.

• Metadata will be automatically captured and written to Elastic Search, including author details, references, and visualisation data.

Navigation and structure

If a document includes a table of contents, the ingestion process should:

• Break the article into separate pages.

• Display the table of contents as navigable links.

Text editor

The editor will be a central feature of the Portal, designed to be intuitive and flexible for authors.

Key capabilities include:

• Footnote creation and inline citation support ("cite as you write").

• Automatic metadata capture for references, including DOI and structured data from external sources.

• Embedding of:

  • Outputs from the internal data visualisation tool.

  • Third-party visualisations (e.g., Power BI, Flourish)

  • Videos and images, with prompts for alt text and metadata.

  • PDFs (if required following graphic design process).

Visualisation creation tool

A dedicated screen or app within the Portal will allow authors to create open-source data visualisations (e.g., D3 line charts) for direct embedding into articles.

Features include:

• Uploading and updating datasets.

• Generating visualisations that can be embedded into the text editor.

• Capturing and writing metadata to Elastic Search for accessibility and discoverability.

• Supporting dataset versioning.

Schema administration tool

To support the FAIR principles, the project will include a schema administration tool for the ongoing administration and generation of structured metadata. This tool will read from and write to Elastic Search, which stores metadata in a structured format associated with each article.

Core capabilities

• Display existing metadata for an article.

• Allow editing and insertion of new metadata.

• Flag missing mandatory metadata prior to publication.

• Maintain a library of previously used metadata (e.g., tags, topics, areas of interest) to promote consistency.

• Support reciprocal linking between related documents by updating Elastic Search accordingly.

• Be compatible with an agreed schema standards and respond to API queries with appropriate values.

• Be extensible to accommodate evolving schema definitions and new data types.

• Enforce a set of mandatory metadata fields (the “golden minimum”).

Examples of metadata fields

The schema tool should support a wide range of metadata fields, including but not limited to:

• Title – The name of the article.

• Author(s) – Name(s) of the contributor(s), linked to their author profile.

• Publication Date – Date the article was published.

• Abstract/Summary – A brief overview of the article’s content.

• Keywords/Tags – Terms that describe the subject matter.

• Topics/Areas of Interest – Thematic categories relevant to the article.

• Version – Version number or status (e.g., draft, final, superseded).

• Related Publications – Links to other articles or documents.

• DOI or Persistent Identifier – If applicable, a unique identifier for citation.

• Language – Language(s) in which the article is available.

• Accessibility Attributes – Alt text, captions, transcript availability, etc.

• Licensing Information – Usage rights or copyright status.

• Provenance – Information about the origin or source of the data used.

The system will support version tracking and supersession notices, ensuring users are aware when viewing outdated content.

Metadata storage and search indexing

To support fast, flexible and scalable search capabilities across both internal and external websites, all metadata associated with articles and documents will be stored in Elasticsearch.

Requirements

Elasticsearch serves as the operational index for:

• Full-text search

• Faceted filtering (e.g., by author, topic, publication date)

• Metadata-based queries (e.g., related publications, version history)

• API access for external services or integrations

The system should:

• Automatically push metadata to Elasticsearch upon article publication or update.

• Support multilingual indexing for both Irish and English content.

• Allow administrators to configure and manage search fields and filters.

• Enable advanced search features such as autocomplete, synonym matching, and relevance ranking.

Elasticsearch will also support:

• Discoverability of articles via metadata fields (e.g., keywords, tags, topics)

• Analytics and reporting on content usage, search trends, and metadata completeness

• Integration with external APIs, including translation services and citation tools

This approach ensures that metadata is not only structured and reusable but also searchable, scalable and extensible, aligning with both the FAIR principles and the practical needs of users navigating large volumes of parliamentary research.

Content management system (CMS)

Both the internal and external websites will share a common backend and CMS, with document-level access control and role-based permissions.

User roles

• Author – Create and edit articles.

• Editor/Reviewer – Review and suggest changes.

• Super User/Publisher – Approve and publish content.

• Administrator – Manage users, roles, and metadata.

Access control

Internal Site:

• Restricted by IP or Active Directory.

• Whitelisted external IPs for peer review.

• Named user accounts for document-specific access.

External Site:

• Open access via the internet.

• No sensitive content should be published externally.

Additional features

• Assign publications to topics, types, and tags.

• Support data dashboards with periodic polling of external data sources to update local static copies.

 

Multilingual support and translation integration

To meet the bilingual obligations of the Houses of the Oireachtas and ensure accessibility for both Irish and English speakers, the STOR project must support full multilingual functionality across all components.

Requirements:

• All static content on both the internal and external websites must be available in Irish and English.

• All articles created through the Portal must be translatable into both languages.

• The system should integrate with an external translation partner via API, enabling:

  • Automated submission of content for translation.

  • Retrieval and display of translated content within the CMS.

  • Support for manual review and editing of translated content before publication.

The CMS should allow authors or editors to:

• Flag articles for translation.

• Track translation status (e.g., pending, in progress, complete).

• Preview and publish translated versions alongside the original.

Translation metadata (e.g., language, status) should be stored and indexed in Elasticsearch to support multilingual search and content management.

DOI assignment in STOR

A DOI is a persistent, unique identifier used to cite and access digital content reliably over time. Assigning DOIs to parliamentary research articles enhances discoverability, citation accuracy and long-term accessibility.

Workflow for DOI assignment

Metadata preparation

• When an article is created in the Portal, metadata is captured and stored.

• This metadata includes key fields required for DOI registration: title, author(s), publication date, abstract, keywords, and version.

Eligibility check

• The system checks whether the article meets the criteria for DOI assignment (e.g., final version, public-facing, complete metadata).

• This could be triggered manually by an administrator or automatically upon publication to the external site.

DOI registration

• The system sends a request to a DOI registration agency (e.g., DataCite or Crossref) via their API.

• The request includes the article’s metadata in a structured format (e.g., JSON or XML) and a URL pointing to the article on the external site.

DOI receipt and storage

• The DOI is returned by the agency and stored.

• It is also embedded in the article’s metadata (JSON-LD) for search engine visibility and citation tools.

Display and citation

• The DOI is displayed on the article page, typically in the citation block.

• Users can copy the DOI or use it to generate citations in various formats (APA, MLA, etc.).

Versioning and updates

If a new version of the article is published, the system can:

• Assign a new DOI (recommended for major revisions).

• Link the new DOI to the previous one via metadata (e.g., isVersionOf, isReplacedBy).

• Update the older article’s metadata to indicate it has been superseded.

Internal website

Purpose

The internal website will serve as a secure, user-friendly platform to showcase the research outputs of the Houses of the Oireachtas to Members and staff. It will operate on the same architecture as the external site, allowing articles to be published internally first and optionally released externally at a later date.

Architecture and publishing workflow

• The website will share infrastructure with the external website (STOR), enabling seamless content migration.

• Articles can be published internally and scheduled for future release to the external site via a timed publishing feature.

• Design will be governed by a dedicated CSS, allowing thematic branding for contributing units (e.g., PBO, L&RS) while maintaining visual consistency.

Design and user experience

• Fully responsive, built with a mobile-first and user-centred design approach.

• Human-readable URLs for all content.

• Intuitive filters and search tools to help users quickly locate relevant research.

• Cookie-based preference saving (no login required), with a disclaimer about data loss if cookies are cleared.

• Custom print CSS to allow articles to be printed in a format similar to existing PDFs, with options to download as PDF or DOCX, watermarked as confidential/internal use only.

Search and filtering

• Powered by Elasticsearch, supporting:

  • Full-text search

  • Fuzzy search with match metrics

  • Faceted filtering by topic, publication type, date range, author, legislation, keyword and interest group

  • Filters should be removable from search results, with clear display of active filters.

Content features

• Display metadata such as publication date, author and originating section (PBO or L&RS).

• Support for:

  • Embedded third-party visualisations (e.g., Power BI, Flourish)

  • Native data visualisations with live data updates

  • Downloadable datasets (e.g., CSV format)

  • Standalone dashboards fed by external data sources

  • Complex multiline formulas rendered clearly

Accessibility

Accessibility must be treated as a core requirement, even for internal users:

• Compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA

• Features include:

  • Reader Mode

  • Browse Aloud / Listen functionality

  • Keyboard navigation

  • High contrast and font size controls

Multilingual Support

• Full support for English and Irish.

• Language switcher available on all pages.

• Integration with a translation partner via API to:

  • Translate static content and articles

  • Track translation status

  • Preview and publish translated versions

• Translated metadata and content should be indexed in Elasticsearch.

Website structure

Homepage

• Distinct visual identity from the external site while maintaining shared design principles.

• Centralised search with quick access to filters.

• Homepage features:

  • Featured publications widget

  • Popular topics

  • Recent publications

  • Blog highlights

Curated publications pages

Thematic landing pages with custom templates for topics such as:

• Budget

• Policy and scrutiny

• Insight

• Fiscal monitor

• Interactive tools

Search results page

• Displays search results with active filters.

• Filters can be removed or adjusted directly from the results page.

• Fuzzy search with match percentage indicators.

Section homepages

• Dedicated landing pages, initially for PBO and L&RS.

• Display latest and featured articles from each section.

Publication detail page

• Displays full article content.

• Includes metadata: publication date, author, section and DOI (if assigned).

• Download options (PDF, DOCX) with internal watermarking.

Author profiles

• “About the Author” section for each contributor.

• Editable by authors via the Portal.

• Enhances credibility and personalisation of research outputs.

Site tree

The site tree is a description of the structure and order of pages. For both the internal and external sites, research will be surfaced across suitable page designs across a site tree system that organises, classifies and prioritises information to best expose users as appropriate to new and relevant research work.

Analytics

Analytics to track usage and engagement.

External website (STOR)

Purpose

The external website (STOR) will serve as the public-facing platform for showcasing selected research outputs from the Houses of the Oireachtas. It will mirror the internal site’s structure and design but will be tailored for public accessibility, discoverability and compliance with external publishing standards.

Key differences from internal site

Compared to the internal website, STOR includes the following unique features and considerations:

• Curated and approved articles for public release.

• Static copies of data used in visualisations to prevent access to sensitive datasets.

• Periodic polling and caching of external data sources for dashboards.

• Metadata insertion in JSON-LD format from the schema sidecar file for SEO and citation tools.

Public-facing features

• Citation export in multiple academic formats (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.).

• Social sharing options via social media and email.

• Subscription module for updates and newsletters.

Compliance and privacy

• GDPR-compliant cookie banner.

• Cookies policy page (e.g., OneTrust implementation).

• No sensitive or internal-use-only content should be published externally.

Accessibility and internationalisation

• Full compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards.

• Accessibility features: Reader Mode, Browse Aloud / Listen.

• Bilingual support: English/Irish language switch, translated pages and metadata.

• Integration with translation services via API.

Navigation and structure

• Visually distinct homepage from the internal site with shared design principles.

• Homepage features: Featured publications, popular topics, recent publications, blog highlights.

• Curated publication pages for public interest topics (e.g., Budget, Policy and scrutiny, Insight, Fiscal monitor, Interactive tools).

• Elasticsearch-powered search and filtering.

• Advanced filtering by topic, publication type, date range, author, legislation, keyword, and interest group.