To view any Portable Document Format (PDF) you need a copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is freely available if you do not already have a copy on your computer (see link below).
Clicking on a PDF link will open the file in your browser window, where you can view or print the file. If you click the PDF link with the right mouse button you will be given various options, one of which is to 'Save Target As....', if you select this option you can save the PDF file to your computer hard drive, and view the file whenever you wish.
Download Adobe Acrobat Reader (opens in new window)
Searching within a PDF
When you open a PDF file, a toolbar will appear (below the address bar if opened in a browser window), featuring a number of tools to help you view and search the document. Moving your mouse/cursor over the icons (without clicking) will tell you what each of them does. Especially useful is the 'Find' tool (a pair of binoculars) - click on the 'Find' icon to search the document for a word or phrase. Click the next icon to the right to search for further occurences of the word or phrase.
Accessibility of PDFs
Many of our reports are currently only available as PDFs. We know that this is a problem for people using screen readers and as the site develops we will include online summaries of our reports.
Adobe do provide information about accessibility and adobe products, and Acrobat Reader 6 has a number of accessibility features.
Adobe accessibility information (opens in new window)
Adobe Acrobat support (opens in new window)
If you are still having problems accessing a PDF file, please contact us and we will try to provide the document in a more suitable format for you.
Contact our CQC customer services team: tel: 03000 616161; email: enquiries@cqc.org.uk.