How to Set Read Order Without Changing Layers

Please, read this excellent article by Chad Chelius:

Accessibility Features and Limitations in InDesign

https://creativepro.com/accessibility-features-and-limitations-in-indesign/

I'm using InDesign CS6 and Acrobat DC.

By @RageKageRugger

Why continue to use an antiquated version of InDesign? It was released 10 years ago in spring of 2012, and before the first release of the PDF/UA ISO accessibility standard for PDF. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDF/UA

So that version of InDesign was created before the world even knew what an accessible PDF should be. Therefore, CS6 creates a horribly flawed PDF that is not accessible.

Upgrade your software, both InDesign and Acrobat DC Pro, to the latest versions to have the right tools to make accessible PDFs. Otherwise you're going to spend a helluva lotta time fixing every PDF you make.

...when I went through and manually set the reading order in Acrobat, it seemed to have moved what layers items were placed in the PDF file.
By @RageKageRugger

Sometimes when an item is moved up/down in the Architectural Order panel, an item will become hidden behind another item. That's the stacking order that's being changed, similar to how you use Send to Front / Send to Back in InDesign.

Workflow for Acrobat:

1. Examine (but don't touch) the Tag Tree and see what needs to be adjusted.
2. Change to the Architectural Order panel and make adjustments there. Most will be adjusted in the Tags tree as well.
3. Return to the Tags tree and finish any other adjustments.

When changes are made in the Architectural Order's reading order, they will change the Tag reading order, too.

But when changes are made in the Tags tree, they generally aren't changed in the Architectural Order panel.

Note: Tags are just labels on different parts of the document, nothing more. You can easily change them and move them around the tag tree.

But the Architectural Order panel is showing the actual architectural construction of the PDF's code. It's the real structure of the PDF file and was the original method of allowing accessibility.

An analogy: In a house, the wall's studs and framing literally create the building's structure. We usually don't see these things, but they hold up the house. The PDF's Architectural Order lets us see the "studs" that create our PDF file.

A PDF's tags, on the other hand, are added to the file, very much like how we add drywall to our studs, paint it, and decorate the room. And it's relatively easy to change the wall pain color or rearrange the pictures on the wall.

See blog about the 4 reading orders in PDF files at: https://www.pubcom.com/blog/2020_08-18_ReadingOrder/reading-orders.shtml

In my InDesign file I have layers for text, background, images, and B&W images.

By @RageKageRugger

Is there a benefit to your design to do this? Why do color images have to be on a separate layer from B&W images?

Best to maintain just one layer in InDesign for everything. InDesign is not Photoshop or Illustrator and doesn't use its layers like those programs do.

The Architectural Reading Order (what you're seeing in the "Order" panel in Acrobat) is built based mainly on your layers in InDesign (which creates the architectural structure of the document).

It's a bottom-up hierarchy in the layers: the bottom-most item is read first, and so on up the layers panel. If you have several layers as in your example, the architecture reads the bottom layer first, completes all of its items, and moves to the next layer to complete its items.

More InDesign layers = More Mess in the PDF's Order panel.

I am trying to make my PDF both screen-reader accessible and printer-friendly.

...

By @RageKageRugger

Adjust your workflow.

Make ONE InDesign layout, but export 2 PDFs  -- one for print/press, the other for accessibility.

Hi RKR,

I think I'm having this exact same issue, and it's quite frustrating! I really hope Acrobat can fix this bug, because document accessibility is SO important, but not taken seriously or respected within our high-tech world.

I'm required in my workflow to edit both the Tag Tree and Reading Order so that they match. I can't think of any reason why they wouldn't match by default, and other A11y users have this same concern. Acrobat is aware of this--here's a link to a 2019 post begging Acrobat to make the two tabs match, but it doesn't seem to have been prioritized yet because here we are.

Anyways, the Tag Tree is so easy to work with, and allows me to organize my tags without any problems. When I pop into reading order, everything is jumbled up and needs reorganizing. I don't mind putting in the extra time, but I've run into a similar issue which renders the reading order workflow impossible to complete. All images within my PDFs by default sit at the bottom of the reading order, but when I move them to their correct place in the panel, they descended to the bottom layer of the document and become "invisible" to sighted users (i.e. blocked by all the other layers). With some light research, I was able to find a workaround to this problem--a way to manually move the layers around within Acrobat (here is a possible solution for you, hope it helps!).

Crossing my fingers, I followed the suggested steps. I brought that image back to the front of the document, and it worked! The image was visible. Then, I looked back at the good ol' Reading Order panel and, believe it or not, the image had dropped back down to last place within the panel. So, I found myself in a loop: changing the reading order of the image made it disappear, and bringing the image back into view changed the reading order.

I really, really hope Acrobat can take this issue seriously; if not to fix the bug within the Reading Order panel that you and I experience, then to make the Tag Tree and Reading Order tabs ALWAYS match so there would be no reason to edit the Reading Order in the first place. I also hope Acrobat can recognize that, as long as this issue remains, there is NO possible way for me to finish any of the work I'm paid to do. I explained to my manager, in reference to these documents, that it is a matter of us choosing between full accessibility to sighted users, and full accessibility to the visually impaired--and no one working for accessibility should ever be forced to make that dicision.

Best of luck,

AA98