Somewhere along the way, Oklahoma’s public websites; schools, cities, counties, and every agency in between, started relying heavily on PDFs. It made sense at the time. PDFs are quick to upload, easy to save, and they feel like a simple solution for busy staff. Most people didn’t think twice about it.
But over time, something else happened. Families and residents began visiting these websites from their phones. In many places, more than half of all traffic is mobile now. And that’s where PDFs start to work against you. They aren’t built for small screens, so people end up zooming, scrolling, flipping their phones, and eventually giving up. Not because the information isn’t helpful but because the format slows them down.
The move away from PDFs isn’t about fault. It’s about noticing what the community is actually experiencing. When people have a hard time getting information, it quietly chips away at trust. Not intentionally, it just happens. And as expectations shift, websites that once seemed fine now feel harder to use than they should.
Accessibility standards are changing too, and that’s another place where PDFs create challenges. Many older documents were scanned years ago and never updated. Screen readers struggle with them, search engines can’t interpret the content clearly, and layout issues get in the way for people who simply need information presented cleanly. The tech just moved forward, and those older documents didn’t move with it.
Search visibility follows the same pattern. Google favors content that lives directly on a webpage, not buried inside a document. When key information lives only inside PDFs, the public has a harder time finding it, even when they’re actively looking.
None of this means PDFs need to disappear. They still have a place for forms, reports, and documents that truly need to be downloaded or printed. But as expectations grow and accessibility laws tighten, it’s worth considering which content belongs on the page instead. Things like schedules, announcements, dates, and policy summaries tend to serve people better when they’re easy to read without opening a file.
The goal isn’t to overhaul how everything works, it’s simply to make life easier for the people who rely on your website. A small shift in approach can make information feel clearer, faster, and more welcoming to everyone who visits.
Oklahoma schools and local governments already do so much for their communities. Modernizing how information is presented online is just another step in that direction.
