Participant

Question

Accessibility Tagging Issue in InDesign

Forum|Forum|5 months ago
October 16, 2025
3 replies
195 views

Hi Adobe Team,
I'm creating an accessible PDF using Adobe InDesign. I've inserted math equations and added Alt Text using Object Export Options > Alt Text > Custom.

However, when I verify the PDF using screen readers or Acrobat’s Read Out Loud feature, the content is being read twice — both the visible math equation and the Alt Text.

I would like to ensure that only the Alt Text is read aloud, and the visual equation is skipped. Could you please guide me on the correct workflow to tag math equations so that screen readers read only the Alt Text?

Thanks in advance!

Import and export

Mike Witherell

Community Expert

What version of InDesign are you operating? At least 20.4?

Mike Witherell

S

SoftLightAuthor

Participant

Using InDesign 20.5.

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @SoftLight,

Thanks for reaching out and explaining the issue so clearly. Could you please try setting the equation frame to 'Artifact' under Object Export Options > Tagged PDF, and then apply your Alt Text to a grouped or anchored frame instead? This helps ensure that only the Alt Text is read by screen readers. Please try this and share your observations.

Looking forward to your update.
Abhishek

S

SoftLightAuthor

Participant

Hi Abhishek,
Thank you for responding. After applying the artifact, the math content isn’t being read properly. I'm unsure where to place the alt text now. Since it's a single inline element, I couldn't group it, and there’s no option in the anchored frame either.
Attaching the screenshot for more clarity.

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @SoftLight,

Thanks again for all the details you've shared so far. To help us investigate this further with our engineering team, could you please share the tagged PDF you generated, so we can review its structure? Also, please confirm the following details:

Which screen reader and operating system are you using for testing?
Are you using the latest version of Acrobat when testing with Read Out Loud?

Looking forward to your update.

Abhishek

Mike Witherell

Community Expert

If they read the same, then could you consider skipping the alt-description text?

This webpage says that MathML is compliant with tagging:

https://www.fondazionelia.org/en/research-and-development/indesign-20-4-major-accessibility-advances/

Mike Witherell

S

SoftLightAuthor

Participant

For math objects, screen readers aren't recognizing the symbols correctly — they're being read as plain text. So I want to add Alt Text to ensure the equations are read properly.

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