Accessibility Issues in PDF from InDesign

Question

I have an Indesign document that uses a 3-column, landscape, 8.5x11 page. I am trying to make this document accessible to the visually impaired, but I'm a newbie to InDesign.

I followed all the steps in Adobe InDesign accessibility and my PDF passes the Acrobat Accessibility Checker. But some of the manual checks are turning up issues that need to be fixed.

I don't want to manually fix these every time I update the document, so I need some guidance on a permanent/automatic solution.

Issue #1: The document has a long URL that wraps through three lines. When I look at the URL tags in the PDF, I see that there are three tags, and that the tags display in reverse order (end of the URL, then the middle, then the beginning).

Question: What do I need to do to get the URL in one tag when it comes out of the InDesign Export?

Issue #2: The document has a number of procedures. Our writing standard is that the name of the button you press or click is in bold. If it is a button with an icon, the icon graphic is also displayed.

Example: Press Hold . (the image is usually smaller; it has alternate text).

In the PDF, the "Press", "Hold", the graphic with alternate text, and the period are all separate tags. I expected "Press Hold" as one tag. I assume that having it in 2 tags is because the "Hold" is in bold in the text.

Question: What do I need to do to get all the text before the graphic in one tag when it comes out of the InDesign Export?

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com · Accepted Answer

Issue #1: The document has a long URL that wraps through three lines. When I look at the URL tags in the PDF, I see that there are three tags, and that the tags display in reverse order (end of the URL, then the middle, then the beginning).Question: What do I need to do to get the URL in one tag when it comes out of the InDesign Export?This is an error with the current version of InDesign-to-accessible PDF.Solution: Ensure you've made an accessible hyperlink in InDesign. Select the URL and using the Hyperlinks panel, make it a hyperlink.After export to PDF, edit the tags in the tag tree. If you're using the latest version of InDesign (CC:2018), you will end up with a tag with nested subtags inside it, one Link-OBJR for each line of the hyperlink.Drag the tags into the correct order.Example: Press Hold . (the image is usually smaller; it has alternate text).In the PDF, the "Press", "Hold", the graphic with alternate text, and the period are all separate tags. I expected "Press Hold" as one tag. I assume that having it in 2 tags is because the "Hold" is in bold in the text.Question: What do I need to do to get all the text before the graphic in one tag when it comes out of the InDesign Export?Everything that is exported to the accessible PDF is based on 2 things: how you constructed the content in InDesign, and what version of InDesign you're using. The newest versions export to the latest accessibility standards and correct previous bugs.If the text and graphic were created correctly in InDesign, you should have gotten this result in the PDF:

Press Hold

.That's one

tag with the content staggered and nested inside. It doesn't matter that the pieces of this sentence appear on different lines of code in the tag tree: what's important is that they are all nested inside one

tag.Suggestion: make sure that the button graphic is an inline anchor after Hold and before the period.Suggestion: as others have said, get training in basic InDesign and then take the advanced training in accessible PDFs from InDesign.

Steve Werner · Answer

Unfortunately, you're facing some major problems: You're trying to solve two things at once. You're inexperienced in InDesign (which requires some time to become proficient), and you're also trying to deal with making a file accessible, which requires a detailed knowlege of how to use all of InDesign's features.

I'd suggest that you get a free starting subscription to Lynda.com and take these two video courses:

Start with David Blatner's InDesign Essentials course:

InDesign CC 2018 Essential Training

And then view Chad Chelius' new and up-to-date Creating Accessible PDFs:

Creating Accessible PDFs

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