Why Your PDF Job Description Is Excluding Candidates

I'm dyslexic. I use assistive technology every day to do my job.

The first barrier when looking for work is often the job description — a locked-down PDF that's barely usable.

This isn't a niche problem. At least one in five people in the UK has a long-term illness, impairment, or disability. Screen reader users, people with dyslexia, low vision, motor impairments, and cognitive disabilities all struggle with PDFs. Many can't access them at all.

This barrier is unnecessary. Better formats are available — and they're not difficult to use.

Why PDFs are a problem

PDFs were designed for printing. They preserve visual layout at the expense of flexibility.

That's fine for a brochure. It's a problem for a document someone needs to read, navigate, and act on.

• Screen readers struggle with PDFs. The reading order is often incorrect or unpredictable. Headings and structure are frequently missing.
• Text cannot be resized without breaking the layout. PDFs have a fixed page width, so zooming in pushes content off screen — forcing users to scroll horizontally or lose context.
• Custom browser settings don't apply. Many users rely on their browser to adjust fonts, colours, or spacing. PDFs ignore that.
• Mobile access is poor. A growing number of job seekers use their phone. PDFs rarely render well on small screens.

The UK Government's own guidance lists this among the problems with PDF documents:

[PDF documents] do not work well with assistive technologies like screen readers a lot of the time.

Requesting an accessible format isn't a solution

Offering to provide an accessible version on request sounds reasonable. In practice, it creates a separate, slower process for disabled candidates.

• The candidate has to identify the right person to contact.
• They have to wait for a response — with no indication of how long that will take.
• If that person is unavailable, the wait gets longer.
• Meanwhile, the application deadline doesn't stop.

Application deadlines are fixed. A candidate who sees a listing late, or who needs extra time to complete an application, already has less time to spare. An unpredictable wait on top of that is a disadvantage.

There's also a less visible cost. Requesting an accessible format means disclosing a disability before you've even applied. Many candidates won't feel comfortable doing that — and shouldn't have to.

Some organisations will point to their ATS or job board as the reason they can't control the format. The job description itself, however, is always within the organisation's control. That's the right place to start.

This is a legal issue

Under the Equality Act 2010, organisations are legally required to make reasonable adjustments to avoid putting disabled people at a disadvantage.

Publishing a job description in a format that excludes disabled candidates does not meet that standard — regardless of whether a complaint is ever made.

Enforcement is rare, but the legal standard exists independently of whether it is tested.

The adjustment required here is not costly or complex. It is a format change.

The problem doesn't stop at the job description

The PDF problem doesn't end when someone gets the job.

Internal documentation — onboarding guides, policies, process docs — is often in the same inaccessible formats. A new employee using a screen reader can find themselves locked out of the information they need to do their job.

The format choice sends a message, even if that's not the intention. Arriving on your first day to find the onboarding documentation is inaccessible tells you something about how much thought went into your inclusion before you walked through the door.

What to do instead

Start with the highest impact change and go from there.

1. Publish job descriptions as HTML

HTML works with every browser, every assistive technology, and every device. It respects the user's own settings for fonts, colours, and spacing.

Most applicant tracking systems (ATS) and job boards support HTML. You may not need to change your tools — just stop attaching a PDF.

2. If HTML isn't possible, use Word

A well-structured Word document is more accessible than a PDF. Screen readers can navigate headings, lists, and tables correctly when they're formatted using proper styles — not just bold text. Word also has built-in accessibility features for readers, such as Immersive Reader, which can reflow text, adjust spacing, and read content aloud.

It's not perfect, but it's a meaningful improvement.

3. If you must use a PDF, tag it properly

A tagged PDF includes structural information that screen readers can use. Most document software — including Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat — can export a tagged PDF.

Give the file a short, meaningful filename too — Senior-Developer-Job-Description.pdf, not JD_v3_FINAL_edited2.pdf. A screen reader announces the filename when the file opens, so it's the first thing a candidate hears.

Run an accessibility check before publishing. Most software includes one built in.

If you publish a PDF, the GOV.UK guidance recommends also publishing an accessible HTML or OpenDocument version alongside it.

None of this matters if the writing itself is dense. Whichever format you choose, keep the language plain. Use short sentences, and explain any acronym or piece of jargon the first time you use it. It helps the same people the format change is for — screen reader users, people with dyslexia, and non-native English speakers alike.

A simple check for your next job description

Before you post, ask yourself:

• Can a screen reader navigate it using headings?
• Does every link describe where it goes, instead of relying on "click here"?
• Do any images have alt text, or is the same information available as text elsewhere?
• Is there enough colour contrast between the text and the background?
• Do the instructions make sense without relying on position, like "the button on the right"?
• Is the language plain, with any jargon or acronyms explained on first use?
• Does it work on a phone without horizontal scrolling?
• Can the text be resized without breaking the layout?
• Does it respect the user's browser or system settings?

If the answer to any of these is no, the options in the previous section cover what to do instead.

Further reading

• GOV.UK, Publishing accessible documents
• GDS Blog, Why GOV.UK content should be published in HTML and not PDF
• Adobe Acrobat, Creating accessible PDFs

If your organisation is still using PDFs for job descriptions, the fix is simpler than it might seem — and the difference it makes to candidates is not.