PDF - accessibilty export tagging failed

Just want to be sure I understand that in Paragraph Style Options, Export Tagging, the panel marked PDF is not the tool to use?  

Hi @MotorIB,

Just to clarify, setting an element (like a paragraph of text, graphic, etc.) to artifact is how we tell all assistive technologies (like screen readers) to ignore the element.

Generally, all elements on parent pages are repetitive — rules, headers, footers, logos, etc.  And because they repeat on every page, the accessibility industry's practice is to artifact them.

In your case, the hyperlink on an artifacted URL caused a conflict: how can something be clickable and ignored at the same time?

...the Object Export Options panel gives you more options to choose under the Artefact type. Why give those further options if artefacts are ignored?

Not sure what you're referring to here. Object Export Options gives only one "option" for artifacts: the element is either artifacted or it's not (see the middle tab). The other tabs and options are used for Alt Text and Actual Text descriptions of graphics. But if the graphic is artifacted, then it doesn't need Alt Text or Actual Text.

Note that all the settings in Object Export Options are placed on frames — either graphic or text frames, not on individual text like a URL. If you want to artifact text, create a paragraph style to format it and set the style's definition to Artifact in the Export Options setting.

I can't release it from the master page because there are hundreds of pages based on numerous master pages and child master pages, and if the layout changes, then I have a massive amount of work to carry out which is then open to inaccuracy and human error.

Accessibility standards and best practices recommend that we avoid hyperlinks on repeating elements — the stuff that repeats on multiple pages. It's a large barrier to those who use assistive technology because they must hear or process the hyperlink over and over and over.

So accessibility checkers will flag that as an error, and especially a hyperlink on an artifacted element. Encourage you to think about designing another, more accessible method of providing the hyperlink on repetitive pages. Bookmarks in the PDF can provide that type of consistent clickable-ness to different parts of the document, but if it's a URL to an outside website, that will be more challenging to do.

HOWEVER... the very ironic thing is I have just deleted the attributed URL from the associated text on the master page of the InDesign document by deleting it from the hyperlinks panel, and yet in the PDF it is still a clickable URL, but this time it doesn't return an accessibility error... which is ridiculous!

That's what Acrobat is proogrammed to do! If we don't put a specific, accessible hyperlink on the URL (what we do with InDesign's Hyperlink's panel), then Acrobat will automatically recognize all URLs and email addresses and create faux hyperlinks: they'll work for most users, but those who use assistive technologies might not be able to see, hear, or click them. And as far as I know, only Adobe Acrobat software does this, not other brands of PDF-reading software so they might not be clickable if your end user uses a non-Acrobat software program.

So, it seems the solution is, if you want a text-based link to a website on a master page, let InDesign/Acrobat do it automatically rather than be clever and efficient by adding it manually via the hyperlinks panel!

I doubt this will pass professional accessibility checkers. It might make it through Acrobat's checker, but the industry doesn't consider it to be an adequate checker. It skips over a lot of serious accessibility errors.

My best to you.