Content on HSE websites must be published as HTML web pages and not in PDF format, where possible. This will mean our content can be used by as many people as possible, including people with disabilities. HTML provides a better user experience for everyone.

PDFs are designed for printing, not for digital experiences. Standard PDFs do not meet the accessibility standards we need to meet by law.

Publishing content as HTML also makes it easier to maintain and optimise the content.

You can find more information about linking to PDFs on the Links page.

Why we do not use PDFs

We do not use PDFs for online content because they:

• create a bad user experience, especially for people using a mobile phone, which is the majority
• are optimised for paper sizes, not browser windows
• are difficult to navigate through
• do not rank well in search results - this means people may not find the content they’re looking for or get information without any supporting material
• take people away from the website by opening in a new tab, window or software
• are difficult to track using analytics - we cannot see how people are using them or if people are having problems with them
• are more difficult to edit and keep up to date than HTML web pages - people may get out of date or unreliable content
• are bad for accessibility

Why PDFs are bad for accessibility

Making our content accessible means making it in a way that most people can use it, without needing to adapt it. We need to make content as accessible as possible for everyone, including people with disabilities.

For people with disabilities, PDFs:

• Do not work well with assistive technologies, such as screen readers. A screen reader is a piece of software for a blind or visually impaired person. Most screen readers work by using a synthetic voice to read the text aloud.
• Do not meet the range of accessibility needs, for example, not being able to change colours or font size.
• Do not work with many browsers, tools and extensions, for example, people often have problems with zoom, scroll, audio, image and keyboard navigation.