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Documents published on GOV.UK must meet the GDS accessibility standards and this includes all PDF documents.
Why we prefer HTML web pages to PDFs
As a rule, all new content to the PHE website should be published as HTML web pages (where HTML stands for 'Hyper Text Markup Language', the basic code most web pages are created in).
Read our guide on the benefits of HTML compared to PDFs.
PDFs must be accessible
But if you do need to publish content as a PDF:
- make sure you're using the new PHE template and follow the how-to template instructionsfollow the guidance in our How to use the new PHE template guide
- save it as a PDF/A
What is the PDF/A format?
The PDF/A format was developed for the archiving and long-term preservation of electronic documents. The A stands for archiving.
Its distinguishing feature is that it saving as a PDF/A forces the PDF document to be 100% self-contained. What this means is the The PDF does not rely on any external programs or elements for it to run. PDFs which did do so would risk becoming inoperable as the dependent softwares evolvedevolve.The
- This Wikipedia article gives a detailed technical explanation of PDF/A's features.
- This blog gives a quick introduction to the 8 types of PFD format.
From an accessibility point of view, the PDF/A format is designed 'to increase the accessibility of conforming files for physically impaired users by allowing assistive software, such as screen readers, to more precisely extract and interpret a file's contents'.
So saving our PDFs as PDF/As is a good first step to making PHE's PDFs more accessible.
How to create a PDF/A in
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Microsoft Word
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In a Word document, click the File tab at the top left
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Under the title field, click the format field to open a dropdown menu of possible formats and select pdf PDF.
If you now clicked Save the Word doc would save as a basic PDF.
To make it save as a PDF/A, click More options Options under the title and format fields.
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You should only need to do this once and Word should remember your preference, but it may be worth checking from time to time that the PDF/A box is still ticked.
What does 'document structure tags for accessibility' mean?
Tagging is essential for PDF accessibility.
It is the tags in a PDF which establish the logical reading order and indicate structure and type, arranging the order in which screenreaders read out PDF content. At its simplest, tags indicate which text is in headings, in bulletpoint lists, in alt text and so on.
Therefore it is very important for accessibility that a PDF is correctly 'tagged'.
A first step towards doing this is making sure that, when you save a Word document as a PDF, you carry over all the tagging (titles, headings, lists, tables, captions, all the formatting) from the source Word document.
Ticking the 'document structure tags for accessibility' tickbox ensures that all the tagging in the Word doc is carried over into the new PDF/A.
However, both these steps do not, by themselves, ensure that a new PDF meets WCAG 2.0 accessibility standards. That requires further checking.
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If you have selected Minimise size to create a PDF with a smaller file size, make sure to double- check that the 'Document structure' box is still ticked. This is because minimising the size of a document can sometimes uncheck the Document structure tick box. |
Resources
- Adobe Acrobat, makers of PDFs, have a comprehensive Accessibility section, including tutorials, training, guides and videos
- Microsoft has created a suite of ten training videos about PDF Accessibility
- Wikipedia article giving a detailed technical explanation of PDF/A's features.
- Blog post introduction to the 8 types of PFD format.
- To check the accessibility of your PDF use the PDF Accessibility Checker (PAC)