Using Adobe InDesign to Create Accessible PDF Documents

Using Adobe InDesign to Create

Accessible PDF Documents

“Automation: grid layout “ image used on page 1 copyright luxuryluke licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

ACCESSIBILITY IN INDESIGN

Understanding InDesign and taking advantage of best practices will do

the heavy lifting when it comes to creating accessible documents.

Beginner

Learning

Curve for

Creating

Accessible

Documents

InDesign Skills

Advanced

Control everything with a style—no formatting from the toolbar!

Some accessibility tasks may have more than one approach. Others

may require some creative thinking.

PARAGRAPH STYLES

With no documents open (so these become your default styles),

create paragraph styles and assign export tags.

•

Basic paragraph (or custom body text style): set to P;

•

Headings (6 possible levels): set to H1…H6, respectively;

•

Bulleted list: set to Automatic;

•

Numbered list: set to Automatic;

•

Blockquote: set to Automatic;

•

Table of contents: set to Automatic.

Export tags deﬁne how the text should be tagged

when exported to PDF. It’s helpful to name them

with their corresponding HTML tags.

Styles set to Automatic may need to be manually changed in Acrobat.

Make use of the Based On feature to make styling more ecient:

1. Duplicate an existing style.

2. Rename the style.

3. Changed the Based On settings.

4. Style as desired.

1 2

3 4

CHARACTER STYLES

Create your default character styles.

TABLE & CELL STYLES

Create cell and table styles to set your default styles.

OBJECT STYLES

Create object styles to set your default object styles.

ARTIFACTING: TEXT

Artifacts are elements that are ignored by

screen reading devices and other assistive

technologies. Any elements that don’t

convey information or aren’t essential

should be artifacted.

Apply artifacting to paragraph styles for

any text elements that should be artifacted:

•

Page numbers and

•

Running headers and footers.

ARTIFACTING: OBJECTS

Apply artifacting to object styles for any

elements that should be artifacted:

•

Decorative blocks of color,

•

Decorative elements such as rules,

•

Decorative background graphics.

You can also artifact an element by right-clicking (Mac) or control-

clicking (PC) and selecting Object Export Options and selecting

Tagged PDF > Artifact.

COLOR

Do not convey information by color alone. Distinguish with tags and

dierences in size, font weight, styling, etc.

Check contrast with a color contrast

checker such as WebAIM.

WCAG Level AA requires a contrast

ratio of at least:

•

4.5:1 for normal text,

•

3:1 for large text.

WCAG Level AAA:

•

7:1 for normal text and

•

4.5:1 for large text.

Large text is deﬁned as 14 point and bold or larger, or 18 point or larger.

DOCUMENT SETUP

Create a new document with a Primary

Text Frame to automatically create

threaded stories.

You can also:

•

create one frame per column of text.

•

use a single frame per page with

multiple columns.

•

thread frames together.

MASTER PAGES

Create master pages with text frame(s).

•

Text frames should reach to pink and

purple guides, not aligned to added

guides.

•

Do not override master page items. Create new

nested master pages instead:

1. Duplicate the master page.

2. Drag and drop a master over the

duplicated one.

3. Select All and delete the items on the newly

created master page and modify as needed.

•

Artifact running headers/footers (paragraph style

or on text frame with object style), rules and

design elements.

TEXT

Typefaces and Characters

Choose OpenType fonts and use Unicode

characters for such symbols as a copyright

symbol or fractions.

Importing

Mapping styles or stripping out all formatting

(importing text with Show Import Options checked)

prevents Word code from getting into the layout

and causing problems when the PDF is created.

Threading

•

Thread all text frames, or only

individual sections or chapters.

•

Leave the table of contents

unthreaded from the rest of the

document’s content.

Cleaning Up

•

Remove multiple spaces and

paragraph marks.

•

Remove any forced breaks.

Use a “no break” style instead.

•

Remove tabs.

•

Rekey anything in all caps

unless an acronym. OK to style

as all caps.

•

Change hyphens that should

be en or em dashes (no double

hyphens).

•

Check that symbols such as

Rekey with Unicode characters.

•

Remove blank rows and

columns in tables; merge cells

where needed.

Formatting Text

Control everything with a style—no formatting from the toolbar!

Formatting from the toolbar results in style overrides, which may

prevent some AT from presenting the info to their users.

Instead, create new paragraph or character

styles based on other styles to make

adjustments, including tracking, so you have no

overrides anywhere.

Example: To have a heading start on the next

page, instead of inserting several paragraph

marks or a page break, create a style called “H3

next page” based on the original and set the

Keep option to Start on Next Page.

•

Set the export tag of the paragraph

style of the document title as H1. Style

chapter or section titles as H1 or H2.

•

Use the correct sequential order for

headings and do not skip any, such as

do not go from an H2 to an H4.

•

Take advantage of paragraph styling

options such as Span Columns,

Paragraph Shading and Paragraph

Rule, etc.

GRAPHICS

•

Anchor images in the text at the end

of the paragraph in which they are

mentioned.

•

Apply object style.

•

Rewrite any text referencing relative

positioning (“below” or “above”).

Instead, use an absolute reference

such as “See Figure 1.”

Alt-Text

Images and images of text cannot be read by screen readers.

Add Alt-text, which does get read, to non-decorative images. Right-

click (Mac) or control-click (PC) and select Object Export Options.

•

Alt-text should say what the

image contains, key visual

elements. Do not give more

info than a sighted reader

will get.

•

Do not repeat the same info as

in the caption.

•

For infographics, explain what

they represent and provide

the data (if short) or link to a

matching data table (after the

chart graphic, in an appendix or

on a website) where that data

might be provided.

Graphs, Charts and Maps

They may require more attention to

ensure readability and sucient contrast

between colors and against backgrounds.

Check contrast with a color-blindness

simulator such as Coblis — Color

Blindness Simulator.

You cannot convey information by color

alone, so if contrast is not sucient to

distinguish the various elements by color,

use other means:

•

Use lines with shapes in a line graph.

•

Use diering patterns in the pieces of a

pie chart or bar graph.

•

With maps, put text that appears on top

of the map in a contrasty color or bold,

add a slight drop shadow or move the

text outside the map.

TABLES

•

Anchor the table in the text.

•

Place the title above/outside of

the table.

•

Style table headers.

•

Style table cells with paragraph

styles that have Export Tagging set

to Automatic.

•

Add/convert top row(s) to proper header row(s).

•

Remove blank rows or columns.

•

Place footnotes after the table. CC 2019 places

footnotes at the bottom of the frame that holds the table

(which should be in its own frame).

•

Do not span across 2 pages unless using columns.

•

OK to place table in its own frame anchored in the text.

•

OK to use View > Rotate Spread for pages to

accommodate wide tables.

SIDEBARS

•

Create sidebars and anchor them in

the text at the end of the paragraph

in which they’re mentioned.

•

Style sidebar titles as H2 or another

level of heading based on the

logical order in which they fall in the

section.

•

Use Apply Next Style under an object’s

paragraph styles to style multiple paragraphs

at a time when the next style has been set in

that paragraph style.

•

A sidebar of only one paragraph could be

styled within the same text frame simply using

Paragraph Shading.

HYPERLINKS

Make all links (hyperlinks, e-mails, footnotes,

etc.) clickable.

•

Convert URLs to hyperlinks and manually

hyperlink other links: Type > Hyperlinks &

Cross-References > Convert URLs to

Hyperlinks.

•

Create Hyperlink Destinations for cross-

references. Then go to their respective

references in the text, highlight them

and link to them.

•

Manually link superscripted mentions

and footnotes.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

•

Create TOC paragraph styles:

•

Set Export Tagging of TOC title as H2

and regular TOC text as Automatic.

•

Create TOC using the built-in feature,

which will create a clickable TOC.

•

In Layout > Table of Contents, set up the

TOC styles based on heading styles.

•

Add bookmarks for all covers, chapters

and sections easily by selecting Create

PDF Bookmarks.

READING ORDER

Text must have a logical reading

order. What you see in InDesign is not

necessarily the order in which it will

be read in the PDF.

Articles Panel

•

Drag and drop the TOC and the main

content (or multiple unthreaded

sections) into the Articles panel.

•

Check the option to Use for Reading

Order in Tagged PDF.

Layers

Reorder items within the same layer

(drag and drop) as opposed to creating

new layers.

This text frame containing “2018” visually appears

above the text frame containing “Annual Report…”

and gets read in that order by a screen reader

because the text frame with “2018” is below the

text frame with “Annual Report…” in the Layers

panel (which is read bottom to top).

•

Article panel is read from top down.

•

Layers panel is read from bottom to top.

METADATA

Add metadata at any time in the

process in InDesign: File > File Info.

•

Fill out at least the Title, Author,

Description and Keywords ﬁelds.

•

The Description ﬁeld will get read

by search engines, so the ﬁrst 150 to

200 words are most important.

•

Add as many keywords as you want.

•

Don’t use “&” if title has “and.” Limit

use of ampersands.

PREFLIGHT & CHECKS

•

Preﬂight as usual.

•

Turn on the Style Override Highlighter

and check for any style overrides

highlighted in the text and denoted

with a “+” sign in the style palette.

•

Check status of hyperlinks

and replace any broken links.

•

Check tags: Paragraph Styles palette > Edit All Export Tags.

Modify if needed.

EXPORT

Export as PDF (Interactive).

General Settings

•

Export as Pages, not Spreads, so

the reading order in the PDF is

not aected.

•

Layout: Single Page.

•

Check Create Tagged PDF.

•

Check Use Structure for Tab Order.

•

Forms and Media: Include All.

Compression

Set the resolution.

•

Set the downsampling to 144 PPI, 200 PPI or

300 PPI, depending on the type of images.

•

Optionally increase the Image Quality setting

to High or Maximum.

The higher the resolution, the greater the ﬁle

size of the PDF.

Export a separate PDF ﬁle for printing with

Export (Print).

ACROBAT

1. If you didn’t check Use Structure

for Tab Order: Organize Pages >

Select All > More > Page

Properties > Use Document

Structure.

2. Run Full Accessibility Check.

3. Edit the role map if needed,

using the correct allowed tags.

4. Troubleshoot and go back and ﬁx issues

in InDesign if needed (you may need to

check the Layers and Articles panels). Then

re-export and redo steps 1 and 2.

5. Check metadata and remove leading

semicolon in keywords.

6. In File > Properties, set Initial View to

Bookmarks Panel to open when ﬁle is opened.

7. Set page view as two-up if desired.

8. Save the PDF.

INDESIGN BUG

Using a custom Unicode character for bulleted

lists, rather than the default bullet, results in:

•

a double <Span> tag in the tagged PDF’s

<Lbl> tag, causing the bullet character to be

voiced twice.

•

the space between the bullet and text appear

ﬁrst, instead of the bullet ﬁrst.

Solution

•

Use the default bullets.

•

If using a custom bullet, either artifact the space’s <Span> in Acrobat

or allow the double voicing of the bullet. It’s not a barrier, but

a nuisance.

You can vote for these and other bugs to be ﬁxed at InDesign.

uservoice.com. Visit PubCom’s webpage to learn which items to

vote for.

CONTACT INFO

Branding, publications

and accessibility

•

[email protected]

•

GratzerGraphics.com

Resources and Design

Domination podcast

for designers

Creative-Boost.com

PubCom

Training by PubCom