InDesign PDF "Tagged annotations failed"

Report · Jul 18, 2023

Hi,

I'm working on a report in Indesign to export it as accessible PDF.

In this document I have a main navigation header with links to different sections so they are hyperlinks that refers to certain pages in the document. And it is located in the master page at InDesign document.

When I run the Accessibility check in Acrobat DC I get the following error on a hyperlink.

"Tagged annotations failed."

Every hyperlink has style paragraphs sets to "artifact".

Best regards

Report · Jul 18, 2023

This always happens when hyperlinks are added to items on Parent/Master Pages.

All items placed on Parent Pages are automatically artifacted in the exported PDF. And you can't have a hyperlink on something that isn't there ... such as an artifact.

4 solutions:

Move your menu system to your live document pages. You'll also have to sequence the menu into the correct reading order on each page. But that will cause other accessibility problems because you'll be repeating the same information page after page after page -- redundancy.
Use PDF bookmarks to create the same functionalilty. You can set the PDF to open with the bookmarks panel open, creating a menu system on the left side of the screen. See File / Properties / Initial View and choose Bookmarks Panel + Page.
Create a table of contents of your menu items.
Create both bookmarks and the TOC.

Report · Jul 19, 2023

Thank you.

And what about hyperlinks in the live body?

I have some and I get the same error when I run Accessibility Check. What should I put in this following panel, in the alt-text box?

I solved the problem by editing the hyperlink tags in the pdf, but I was wondering if there was a way to set the tags correctly already in indesign without having to intervene after exporting to the pdf.

Report · Jul 19, 2023

First, why is a <Span> tag in the Alt Text field?

It shouldn't be in the InDesign field, which should hold only the actual text content you want in the final Alt Text attribute in the PDF.

Second, it's a whole different discussion as to when to add Alt Text to hyperlinks. By industry guidelines and best practices, not all hyperlinks should have Alt Text, and when we survey screen reader users (the main group that uses Alt Text), they only want it on certain types of hyperlinks:

Long, convoluted, confusing URLs like this one, https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/indesign-pdf-quot-tagged-annotations-failed-quot... Screen reader users can't hear and retain all of the individual characters in this type of URL and instead prefer to hear an Alt Text description like "Comment on Adobe Community Forum".
Any hyperlink where the purpose or destination isn't clear from the hyperlinked text itself. The theory comes from "meanful text" being in the hyperlink. Examples of hyperlinks that usually don't need Alt Text because the link's text is self-descriptive:
- Cross references, such as See Table 10 on Page 20 and Jones, 2022, and TOC entries like Chapter 2, Blue Widgets ... 9 In all of these, the text that's hyperlinked is self-explanatory.
- First reference to the publisher's website or contact information, such as www.designrights.it but successive website URLs in the PDF would use Alt Text like "Design Rights' website."

Unfortunately, the PDF/UA accessibility standard got this wrong, and states that all hyperlinks must Alt Text. That's unfortunate because Alt Text is a very crappy technology for those who are blind (see a recent blog about our research on this at https://www.pubcom.com/blog/alt-text/1_rethink-alt-text/index.shtml). One thing it does is "hijack" the real content underneath it. So if you write Alt Text for your URL as "Visit our website," your screen reader users will never be able to hear, copy, or know what your exact URL is. We believe that in digital documents, all users should be able to access and know the main contact info of the publisher and not hide it behind technology.

Report · Jul 19, 2023

One more comment about the errors you're getting in the checkers...

The PDF/UA standard says ALL hyperlinks must have Alt Text. In those cases where you believe that's incorrect, the checker might flag it as an error. Ignore the error if you think your decision is best.

The checkers are made by Adobe and other companies, some now bought out by larger corporations. Any company that creates a software checker can only evaluate your PDF based on Yes, it does have Alt Text, or No, it doesn't have Alt Text.

It can't evaluate whether the hyperlink SHOULD have Alt Text, or if it's correct Alt Text.

Software can't make human decisions about quality or effectiveness. Software is stupid.

I noticed one more setting in your screen capture that throws out errors in the checkers: UNcheck the option to use Shared Hyperlink Destination, or Destinazione collegamento ipertestuale condivisa in Italian. It's just an unnecessary InDesign feature that is incorrectly coded in the PDF and your hyperlinks will fail.

Report · Jul 21, 2023

ok, thank you very much