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Cath8000
New Participant
November 29, 2017
Question

Adding page numbers to an accessible pdf created in Indesign

  • November 29, 2017
  • 3 replies
  • 4014 views

Hello, I've just started to create accessible pdf's for a client I do some work for. The pdf seems to have worked well and can be read on a screen reader. One thing I'm not sure of though is how to add page numbers so that they will be read by the screen reader correctly. Would anyone have tips on this?

Thanks for your help.

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3 replies

Derek Cross
Derek Cross
Community Expert
November 29, 2017

Hi Cath

Chad is an expert in producing accessible PDFs – he's produced several Lynda.com online video tutorials, such as: Acrobat DC: Creating Accessible PDFs  (you can get a 30-day free trial)

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    Cath8000Author
    New Participant
    November 30, 2017

    Thank you all for your advice, that's really helpful.

      hammer0909
      hammer0909
      Community Expert
      November 29, 2017

      You could add the page numbers to the master page in Adobe InDesign and that would cause them to appear on each page in the document. That being said, for PDF accessibility, you typically don't want the physical page numbers to be read because Acrobat manages the page number of the document in the Acrobat interface. Page numbers are typically artifacted in the PDF so that they aren't read. BTW, if you add page numbers to the master pages in InDesign, they are automatically artifacted ;-)

      AndreiCT
      AndreiCT
      New Participant
      July 29, 2024

      This was helpful, thank you, Chad, esp "if you add page numbers to the master pages in InDesign, they are automatically artifacted" - any way to remove/bypass this restriction? I actuallly need the pagination to be tagged/read by the screen reader, what's the best approch to make that happen in InDesign?

      K
      Kay Saleh
      New Participant
      September 4, 2024

      I would like pagination to be narrarated too ... does anyone know how? Thanks...

        Mike Witherell
        Mike Witherell
        Community Expert
        November 29, 2017

        Physical page numbers are regarded by many in the accessibility community as unnecessary to the assistive speech reader. What is your viewpoint on that?

        Mike Witherell
        AndreiCT
        AndreiCT
        New Participant
        July 29, 2024

        Did this change in new ADA new standards? I actually have a request for page numbers to be readable.

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