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Laura5EAF
New Participant
September 29, 2020
Question

Adding alt text to vectors - not displaying in Acrobat once PDF'd

  • September 29, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 3451 views

Due to new accessibility laws that have been introduced this month we have to make sure all images within any artwork we produce have alt text. I can do this no problem for PNG and JPEG files within Indesign but any vectors, EPS or ai files don't show the alt text once exported as a PDF. I have tried adding the alt text via object export options as well as add the alt text into the file info description and then creating an object style and selecting XMP description but nothing works - all I get when I hover over the image in Acrobat is a cursor with a outlined box (see image). I have tried adding the alt text in Acrobat too but this doesn't work on vectors either. Any advice on how to resolve this issue? Currently I am having to drop a transparent PNG over the top of any vectors within Indesign and adding the alt text to that - not an ideal work around.

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2 replies

adamd61503058
adamd61503058
Participating Frequently
December 11, 2024

I have the same issue, using the most up-to-date Indesign 2025.

 

When viewing a none vector image, the ALT text displays in a yellow box over the image area, this is missing when the item is an .Ai or .eps file, would this be to do with a PDF being a vector file and these elements would become intertwinned with the PDF?

 

I have used the "Set Alternative Text" setting in the Accesibiility Panel in Acrobat Proffesional, and the Alt Text IS there, and you can see it is there when you open it in Tags  – I believe that the Alt text is also read out to people using screen readers. 

 

So it is just a bit annoying that it fails to display in its usual way.

 

Can anything be done about this?

 

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Brainiac
September 29, 2020

Are you on the latest version of InDesign? 2020 (build 15.1.2.226). Older versions of InDesign didn't respect Alt-text on graphics created in InDesign with its tools, or graphics copied/pasted from Illustrator into InDesign.

 

And one more item: hovering over the graphic in the PDF is NOT the way to test for Alt-text. Some browsers  don't do the pop-up (Alt-text is supposed to be voiced by screen readers, not visible in a pop-up).

 

Instead, find the <Figure> tag in the tag tree, right-click on it, Properties, and see if there is any Alt-text in the field box.  You can also run Acrobat's Alt-text utility in the Accessibility tools pane.

 

|&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Bevi Chagnon &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;Designer, Trainer, &amp; Technologist for Accessible Documents ||&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;PubCom |&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Classes &amp; Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs &amp; MS Office |
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    Laura5EAFAuthor
    New Participant
    October 1, 2020

    Hi yes I am using the most up to date version of InDesign - I can't seem to find a screen reader that works with PDFs on a Mac to check my alt text works ok.

    Jens Trost
    Jens Trost
    Inspiring
    October 1, 2020

    Have a look at this Acrobat plugin from callas (it's free)
    https://www.callassoftware.com/en/products/pdfgohtml

    It can show you all the structure tags if that is what you're looking for.

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