PDF in Queensland Government

PDF use in Queensland Government

How much PDF is used in Qld Government?
How long is a ball of string?
Image Copyright © Michael Richmond.

25.1% of documents are PDF
The use of PDF ranges from 43.1% at communitysafety.qld.gov.au to just 1.4% at publicworks.qld.gov.au. Most departments sites have over 15%

These figure do not account for …
Domains excluded from Funnelback (Qld government search engine)
Multiple versions of the same document
Yes, bad bad bad! Another issue with PDFs
PDFs with alternative formats (HTML, RTF etc.)

How many are accessible?
Good question …

Accessibility
We stipulate:
accessible equivalents must be made available (HTML preferred)
minimum requirements …

Minimum requirements
Hierarchical headings etc.
proper styles used, not random formatting
ToC, links and bookmarks
Reading order
Layout and contrast (white space, margins etc.)
Accessible tables (never for layout)
Specify ‘natural language’
Include metadata
Force download (don’t open in browser)

General position
Applying accessibility techniques to PDFs (without alternative format) reduces risk, but PDFs are not fully accessible .
HTML is recommended. Strongly. With much arm waving …

What are PDFs good for?
Print documents
Things a customer may want to keep on file
e.g. receipts from online transactions
That’s about it …

What are PDFs actually used for?
Everything, unfortunately

Why?
‘ Print first’ culture (web an afterthought)
Belief that some ‘legal’ content must stay in its original format (e.g. forms)
Content owners are proud of their creation and want it to stay pretty
There’s no time! Get it online! We’ve promised the minister! Argh! Is it online yet? Don’t worry, we’ll fix it later!

We’re trying to change this
Most communications staff are aware of requirements and understand why
Some don’t feel a minority should be catered for
More executive level people are starting to get it …

The rules
Module 6—Non-HTML documents (CUE Standard 3.0)
Information Standard 26—Internet (Mandatory principle 1—Online presence)
Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cwlth) (Part 2, Division 1, Section 24)

How to fight the PDF horde
Educate
Effect on accessibility, usability, mobile devices, low bandwidth, SEO
Sell the benefits
Give customers what they want, save money, avoid legal issues, manage content easily (one source of truth in an easily updateable form)
Ease concerns
e.g. create print style sheets, clarify legal requirements in writing

Example of companion cards page from new Qld govt website

Example showing how this page transforms with a print style sheet

Still fighting …
Educate some more!
how people read on the web, share web stats showing HTML is preferred

An example
1 January 2011 – 30 June 2011
Top line: HTML (2,213 page views)
Bottom 2: PDF (6 page views)

Still …
Challenge common practice
Just because a document is available in print doesn’t mean it needs to be online (what do our customers want?)
Do we even need the print version?

Things are changing
OSR traditionally provided their Compliance Program as PDF only
The last few years they moved to offering a HTML version as well
This year it’s HTML only

When the revolution comes …
Single website experience
Educate
Mandate

PDF in Queensland Government

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PDF in Queensland Government Presentation Transcript