1. Self-Paced Learning
  2. InDesign

InDesign

The following consist of steps and considerations in order to make an accessible-friendly document in Adobe InDesign. For more information or how to get started, check out the Adobe InDesign Help Center.

  1. Document Layout
  2. Document Colors
  3. Document Fonts
  4. Document Title
  5. Build a Tag Tree
  6. Table of Contents
  7. Tables
  8. Bulleted and Numbered Lists
  9. Build Articles
  10. Exporting your InDesign Document to an Accessible PDF
  11. External Resources

You can also download this training as a PDF, provided by John Lucas, the Senior Graphic Designer at UConn OVPR.

Document Layout

Parent Pages (formerly known as Master Pages) can be used to standardize the document layout of your InDesign files. A Parent Page functions as a reusable template that you can apply to multiple pages.

  • Any element you place on a Parent Page, such as logos, page numbers, headers, footers, or placeholder frames, automatically appears on every document page where that parent is applied.
  • These items display a dotted border to distinguish them from regular page content and cannot be selected unless you override them.
  • Another note about Parent Pages is that they get flagged as artifacts. Anything in the Parent Page gets turned into an artifact and is not tagged, similar to the MS Word header and footer.

You can visit the official Adobe InDesign overview on parent pages and the InDesign guide on creating parent pages to get started.

Document Colors

Good color contrast is required for a document to be accessible. There are many online tools to check this in your document. For more background and recommended tools, visit the Self-Paced Learning on Accessible Colors.

If you are including images in your InDesign content, you can also generate alt text either automatically or manually by following the steps on alt text outlined by Adobe’s official InDesign documentation.

Document Fonts

Clear, sans serif fonts, and adequate line spacing are necessary for accessibility success. For more details, visit the Self-Paced Learning on Accessible Documents – Fonts section. The Adobe InDesign Text Content Section also provides details on dealing with text and best practices.

Document Title

Navigate to File > File Info > Document Title and name your document, then press the “OK” button.

Build a Tag Tree

A Tag Tree is an invisible, hierarchical structure that organizes document elements logically for screen readers. It ensures content is read in the correct order by grouping text and images logically.

Using Paragraph Styles, you need to create a level of hierarchy for all text in size and importance from headings, to subheads, to paragraph/body text so that screen readers announce text in proper order:

  • Go to Window > Styles > Paragraph Styles
  • In Paragraph Styles, click the multi-horizontal line icon in upper right corner, create and name new, individual paragraph styles for Headings (H1), Major Sections (H2), Sub-Sections (H3) and finally Paragraph Text (P). If you include the respective abbreviation with each style name, it makes them easier to identify in the styles list.
  • Before you finish assigning font, size, etc. to your new, respective paragraph styles and save each one, click on “Export Tagging” at bottom of lower left column in menu to assign appropriate “PDF/Tag:” level.

Next, all your photos and/or graphics need to be identified as either meaningful images or just decorative artifacts. Meaningful, figure images need “Alt. Text” assigned to them which basically works as a brief caption describing the image in detail on a screen reader. If the image itself contains text, all of the text should be included in the Alt text window. Decorative artifacts are images that support visual design but are not vital elements to a visually-impaired person to be aware of.

  • Go to Object > Object Exporting Options choose the “Alt Text” tab and then “Alt Text Source: Custom” for meaningful images and either copy-and-paste text or type text into white area.
  • For artifacts, select “Alt Text Source: Decorative Image (No Alt Text)” Then press the “Done” button.

Adobe provides a guide to working with styles in InDesign.

Table of Contents

Longer documents should have a linked Table of Contents for ease of navigation. PDF Bookmarks are also required for longer documents and can be created directly from the Table of Contents. Both are based upon your paragraph styles.

  • Go to Layout > Table of Contents and a window opens that shows your options to choose and assign.
  • Be sure to check the “Options/Create PDF Bookmarks” box.

Adobe provides a guide to working with Table of Contents in InDesign

Tables

InDesign Tables are generally exported to PDF with proper tagging. However, you will need to assign your header rows in InDesign.

  • To set a table header row, highlight the row(s), then go to Table > Convert Rows > To Header

Adobe provides guides on creating tables in InDesign and additional table formatting in InDesign

Bulleted and Numbered Lists

Screen readers will announce the presence of buletted and numbered lists with a count of the number of items in the list. It can do this because of the tag tree for paragraph/body text previously created. However, for this to automatically work, these lists must be created using the “built-in” InDesign bulleted list/numbered list option, otherwise it will just be read as continuous text. These lists can be customized in the bullets/numbering dialog boxes.

Adobe provides a guide on creating bulleted and numbered lists in InDesign.

Build Articles

Using Articles, you need to create a reading order of all relevant content (Text, photos, graphics) page-by-page or spread-by-spread.

  • Go to Window > Articles to open window.
  • Select content with “shift” key and click your cursor on content (everything except decorative artifacts you don’t want included) in the order you want them to be read, from top-to-bottom, left-to-right in your chosen reading order and drag-and-drop onto the pre-opened Window > Articles window.
  • “New Article/Name:” window opens up for you to either name it or just leave named as Article 1. Always be sure the “Include When Exporting” is checked. Then press the “OK” button.
  • Once saved, you’ll see your new article name and it’s contents listed below in the Articles window for each new article created. Click on the new article name and then click on the multi-horizontal line icon in upper right corner to be sure “Use for Tagging Order in Tagged PDF” is checked before continuing to create more page/spread articles sets.

Adobe provides a guide on creating and managing articles in InDesign.

Exporting your InDesign Document to an Accessible PDF

To export to PDF in a way that retains accessible features, first navigate to File > Export and then name your file and save as “Type: Adobe PDF”

In the Options dialogue box, in the “General” category, you’ll want to make sure that the following selections are made:

  • Adobe PDF Preset is set to the “Smallest File Size,”
  • “Pages: All”
  • “View: Fit Page”
  • “Layout: Single Page”
  • “Export: Pages” (not Spreads)
  • Check the box next to “View PDF after Exporting” for your own convenience if desired
  • Check the box next to “Create Tagged PDF,” choose “Optimize for Fast Web View”
  • Make sure you set the Export Layers to “Visible & Printable Layers” “Include: Bookmarks” and “Hyperlinks.”

Save all of these settings by choosing “Save Preset” and rename it so you can use it again and again.

In the “Advanced” category, navigate to “Accessibility Options,” and ensure the following selections are there:

  • “Display Title: Document Title”
  • “Language: English.”

Finally, hit the “Export” button. The resulting PDF will have a tag tree with properly marked up headings, tables and lists. It should have a working table of contents and PDF bookmarks for navigation. If you check the properties on your images, you should see your alternative text in the image properties.

For more details, check out this guide on how InDesign supports Accessible PDFs.

External Resources