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InDesign

Adobe InDesign allows for a lot of freedom when designing and creating documents. Basic document accessibility principles apply when working with InDesign, but there are additional steps required for the resulting PDFs to be accessible. Making PDFs accessible ensures that everyone has access to the information that is provided.

Document Title

File Information panel showing title, description, and keywords fields

As with other documents, a document title is essential. It encapsulates the meaning of the document and is also displayed in search results.

  1. Go to the File menu and select File Info.
  2. On the panel that displays, select the Basic option in the left column.
  3. In the right column, enter your title text in the Document Title field.
  4. Use the Description field for a brief summary of the document. This will be treated as the meta description.
  5. Use the Keywords field for important words that a user may use in search.
  6. Click OK to save.

Reading Order

Articles Panel showing reading order of content blocks

An InDesign document may have multiple objects arranged on the page according to the layout of the designer. It is necessary to define the reading order of the blocks for those using assistive technologies. Use the Articles panel to do this.

  1. Open the Articles panel.
  2. Select objects in the document and drag them to the panel. Place them in the appropriate reading order.

Tags

Tags are the structural elements needed by assistive technologies to allow users to browse through content efficiently. They can be used to describe the content and identify page items such as headlines, stories, and figures. See Adobe's article Structuring PDFs for more information. The structural tags may be useful in large documents. For smaller documents, it may be sufficient to map the document styles to the common paragraph, heading, and list tags.

Paragraph Styles and Mapping

Use paragraph styles consistently throughout your document. Consistent use of InDesign paragraph styles throughout a document is critical for efficiently and successfully exporting the content to PDF. The styles should be based on the hierarchical structure of the content (main headline, secondary headings, subheading, paragraphs, table of contents, and so on) and applied according to their hierarchical role in the document. They should be mapped to a common set of tags used when exporting to PDF.

  1. From the menu select Window > Styles > Paragraph Styles.
  2. Create a style for a standard Paragraph. (If a style has already been created for this purpose, edit that style.)
  3. Select the Export Tagging option in the left column.
  4. For PDF > Tag, select the P option.
  5. Repeat the process for all Headings H1 through H6. (See the Lists section for appropriate mapping of bullets and numbers.)
  6. Create Table of Contents styles if needed. From the menu select Layout > Table of Contents Styles.
  7. Select OK to save.
Paragraph Styles panel showing the Export Tagging option to map the style

You should consider creating an InDesign base template file that already includes the common tags used in a document as well as the styles mapped to the tags. The styles can then easily be redefined to match the design.

Images

Images should be anchored at the end of a sentence to ensure the reading order is correct.

  1. Select the image object to be anchored.
  2. Click and hold the small blue square at the top edge of the frame or object group.
  3. Drag to the desired position within the text and release.

Images must also have appropriate ALT text for screen readers.

  1. Select the image
  2. From the menu, select Object > Object Export Options. (The same option can be accessed with a right click on the image object.)
  3. Select the Alt Text panel.
  4. In the Alt Text Source drop-down menu, select Custom and enter the alternative text in the text field, or select Decorative Image if alternative text is unnecessary.
ALT Text panel showing custom field for descriptive text
ALT Text panel showing custom field for descriptive text

Lists

In the HTML world, these are known as ordered (ol) and unordered (ul) lists. Lists need to be specifically defined to be read to the user appropriately.

  1. Open the Paragraph Styles panel.
  2. Add a New Paragraph Style.
  3. Name the style appropriately. (Examples: "Bullets", "Unordered", "Numbers", "Steps", etc.)
  4. Edit the style and select Bullets and Numbering from the left-hand column.
  5. Select the appropriate List Type and define the other formatting options.
  6. Select the Export Tagging option in the left column.
  7. For PDF > Tag, select the Automatic option.
  8. Select OK to save.
  9. Apply the new style to the list text.

Links

Hyperlinks can be added to the text in the document. They will be presented as interactive elements, accessed by a keyboard, to users of assistive technologies. The text used for hyperlinks should always be descriptive, giving the reader a clear idea of what to expect when following the link. You should never use “click here” or “read more” for hyperlinks. The same link text should not be used for different destinations. To create a link:

  1. Select the text that will be hyperlinked.
  2. Right-click on the selected text and select Hyperlink > New Hyperlink.
  3. In the Link To drop-down menu, select an option. Options include URL, email, text anchor, etc.
  4. Fill in the details for Destination.
  5. Be sure to uncheck Shared Hyperlink Destination.
  6. Use the options in the Appearance panel to define the look of the link. The style "Hyperlink" is most typical.
  7. Use the Accessibility panel to add Alt Text for a more descriptive hyperlink.
  8. Select OK to save.
Hyperlink panel showing destination and character style options
Hyperlink panel showing ALT text for link

Table Headers

Tables should only be used for displaying data and not used for layout purposes. Each table should have a row with header text that define the content of each column. Table headers are needed to ensure that screen reader users can navigate through the table using table commands. To create table headers, select the column header of a row. Then select Table > Convert Rows > To Header. Note that Row Headers cannot be set in InDesign. They must be set in Adobe Acrobat.

Table of Contents

If you have created heading styles and applied them throughout your document, you can then generate a table of contents. InDesign will generate an independent text frame which can then be placed in the document and added to the Articles panel for the appropriate reading order. When the interactive PDF is generated, hyperlinks will automatically be made. Refer to the Adobe documentation for Creating a Table of Contents.

Exporting a PDF

Export PDF panel showing selected options

After all of the configurations for accessibility are complete, the document can be export to PDF.

  1. From the InDesign menu, select File > Export.
  2. Provide a filename.
  3. For Format, ensure that Adobe PDF (Interactive) is selected.
  4. In the Export to Interactive PDF dialog, under the General section, select Create Tagged PDF.
  5. Select Export.
  6. Review the PDF in Adobe Acrobat to inspect the tags and verify that the reading order is correct.

Note: If accessibility updates are needed in your PDF, it is much easier to make them in the original InDesign document and re-export rather than trying to make adjustments using Acrobat.

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