SimpBill

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Inspiration

Government bills, ordinances, and public notices are often written in dense legal or technical language that many everyday people may not understand. This creates a barrier between communities and the decisions that affect them. We wanted to build a tool that makes civic information easier to understand so more people can participate in local government, ask informed questions, and stay engaged. SimpBill was inspired by the idea that democracy works best when information is accessible to everyone.

What it does

SimpBill is an AI-powered civic accessibility tool that simplifies confusing government bills, ordinances, and public policy documents into clear, neutral summaries.

Users can paste any public document into the platform and receive:

Plain-English summaries Who the policy may affect Potential benefits Possible concerns Why the issue matters Questions residents can ask public officials

SimpBill helps turn complex legislation into understandable information in seconds.

How we built it

We built SimpBill as a lightweight web application using modern frontend tools for speed and usability.

Tech stack included:

React + Vite for the frontend Tailwind CSS for responsive UI design JavaScript for app logic AI prompting architecture for document simplification workflows GitHub for version control

We focused on creating a clean user experience that could be easily demoed and expanded into a production-ready civic technology platform.

Challenges we ran into

One of the biggest challenges was balancing simplicity with neutrality. We wanted summaries to be easy to understand without oversimplifying important details or introducing bias.

Another challenge was time. Building a polished product quickly meant prioritizing core features and focusing on the highest-impact user experience first.

We also had to think carefully about trust—government-related tools need to feel credible, clear, and accessible.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of building a meaningful tool that solves a real-world problem in civic engagement.

Some accomplishments include:

Turning a complex policy problem into a user-friendly AI product Designing a polished and intuitive interface under hackathon time constraints Creating a platform with clear social impact potential Building a concept that could realistically scale to cities, schools, nonprofits, and advocacy groups

Most importantly, we created something that empowers people with understanding.

What we learned

We learned that accessibility is not only about physical access—it is also about informational access.

We also learned how powerful AI can be when used for public good. Instead of entertainment or automation alone, AI can help bridge the gap between institutions and communities.

From a technical side, we improved our skills in rapid prototyping, frontend development, product prioritization, and communicating impact through design.

What's next for SimpBill

Next steps for SimpBill include:

Live AI integration for real-time bill analysis Multi-language support (Spanish, Arabic, Bengali, and more) Reading level modes (basic, standard, detailed) City-specific bill tracking and alerts Searchable database of local legislation Voice accessibility features Public comment assistant to help residents respond to proposals

Our long-term vision is to make SimpBill the easiest way for people to understand laws before those laws affect them.

Built With

• github
• javascript
• react
• tailwind
• vite