A Problem: One group in InDesign = Several Accessibility tags in Acrobat

[Tajuva]

In my layout I have maps and graphics which are composed of several objects (eg. a background image, possibly another image, a few arrows, a text). When creating an accessible PDF, I have tried to group these compositions and give each an alternative text or an 'Artefact' Tag. Sadly, along the transition from InDesign to Acrobat these objects get tagged as if they were ungrouped.

A work-around I was given was to create the map or image with all the layered objects in another app like Illustrator or Photoshop. The outcome would be easy for InDesign to bite as it is only one image.
This would take too much time to make.

How to get a group remain together and end up with just one tag for it when exporting an accessible PDF?    

The layout is a puzzle and I dont't use the Articles panel. In case of any later document edits I wish to modify the accessibility tags in InDesign instead of Acrobat.

[Anshul_Saini]

Hi there,

Sorry about the trouble. I am afraid, as of now, this is not possible. I would request you to post this on our UserVoice (https://indesign.uservoice.com/). This is the best way of communicating with the Engineering and Product Management teams regarding issues and suggestions so they can be implemented in future releases. Also, this way, you will keep getting all the updates related to this, and other users can also upvote, which would help us prioritize.

Thanks & Regards,

Anshul Saini

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

@Tajuva, this type of graphic should be made as one graphic in Adobe Illustrator. You then would add the Alt-text to the entire single graphic in InDesign, rather than to the individual pieces.

Updating and editing the graphic would be done in InDesign, and then set the link in the Links Panel to update with the new version. Really not difficult to do.

[Frans v.d. Geest]

@anshulsaini1 Your clock says '28 dec 2022' as post date, are you from the future? 😉

That said, group tags are strange this way and there should be a method in the future to do exactly this (without converting text to outlines in diagrams you group as another example).

[Laubender]

"A work-around I was given was to create the map or image with all the layered objects in another app like Illustrator or Photoshop. The outcome would be easy for InDesign to bite as it is only one image.

This would take too much time to make."

Hi Tajuva,

you could also copy/paste the composition to a new InDesign document and place the InDesign page.

Or export a PDF from that page to place it.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )