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    Assessing and replacing PDF documents on our website

    We are working to improve the accessibility of our documents where possible. There is a large number of PDF documents on our website but we cannot amend them all at once. This would demand a disproportionate allocation of resources.

    We commit to make all active documentation accessible. We prefer to create HTML web pages where possible. If they are necessary, we aim to ensure PDFs meet accessibility guidelines.

    We try to respond as fast as possible to requests for documents in different formats. This means accessible versions are available on demand, with a short lead time.

    Benefits

    The benefits of making PDFs documents accessible, or changing them to HTML pages are:

    • all materials will be accessible to all users
    • content will be more searchable and indexable

    Impacts

    Most of our content and services are already accessible without the addition of PDFs. Some PDFs only provide an alternative format to information published as HTML content.

    From 13 October 2020 to 13 October 2021, around 1% of website sessions included a PDF download. This is according to Google Analytics data. So inaccessible PDFs currently on the website impact a small proportion of our users.

    Scale

    There are currently 8,055 PDF documents published on gateshead.gov.uk.

    Google Analytics data shows users accessed 6,282 of them in the past year (October 2020 to October 2021). This equates to 79% of the PDFs we have available on the site.

    We categorise PDFs not viewed in the past year as 'inactive'. These unused documents have no negative impact on users. For this reason, the costs of time, effort and resources to fix them is not justified.

    We are prioritising, reviewing and replacing the most used documents on our site. Those PDFs which are in demand, or needed for essential services.

    Of the 6,336 'active' PDFs - around 7%, (approximately 458) of these were viewed 50 or more people in the past year. We aim to review this top 7 per cent of documents as a starting point. We will create accessible versions of documents or replace content with HTML pages.

    Timeframe

    We can't calculate the time needed without reviewing each document first. We assume each PDF would take at least one hour to review and replace. This is at least 63 days of work (based on an average 7 hour and 24-minute working day), but likely more.

    As this is such a large amount of work, we will aim to complete the review of the most used documents by the end of 2022.

    We may adjust this timeframe based on the review process. For example, extending it if many documents take longer than one hour to review and replace.

    When we complete this initial work, we will reassess PDF usage across the website. We will then apply our process to any outstanding documents.