Accessibility: Article Names for Tab Order

Let's clear up a misconception stated in this thread:

A PDF's TAB order (that is, pressing the TAB key or some other key to advance from element to element) is only used to navigate from an interactive element to another. Two primary cases:

1. Hyperlinks on the page or in the document, and
2. Form fields on the page or in the document.

Therefore, the TAB order has nothing to do with the <Art>/Article tags the panel creates in the PDF by the Articles Panel.  N O T H I N G.

A second misconception is the use of the <Art>/Articles tag:

No assistive technology we've tested recognizes and uses that tag, at this time. Would love for assistive technologies to start putting it to good use for their customers/users, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

Recommendation:

The Articles Panel is a tool that can help control the tag reading order in the exported PDF, not the TAB order. If you do decide to use that panel...

• Name each article whatever you want. But we do recommend creating a very short 1-2 word name in case any future technology can read it. Examples: TOC rather than Table of Contents; Main Story rather than How to Improve Your Golf Game in 10 Lessons.
• Check the option in the panel's Options drop-down menu to Use for Tagging Order in Tagged PDF.
• Sequence your articles in the panel to match the Tag reading order you want in the PDF. Sequence each article from top-down, as well as the individual elements that are nested inside each article.
• And be sure to check the option for each article to Include When Exporting.

Hope this helps!

—Bevi Chagnon

InDesign expert. Accessibility expert.

And US delegate to the ISO committees for PDF and PDF/UA.