How to create an accessible PDF in Adobe Indesign
Each week, we're going to "strip down" a website and put it under the microscope to show how to make it more digitally accessible. Last week, we covered accessible header structures. Now we cover another important part: accessible PDFs on a website. Many digital documents are formatted and read in PDF format. To ensure that everyone, including people with disabilities, can understand and navigate these documents, it is essential to make them digitally accessible. Carolina van Setten, provides five practical tips to get you started on creating accessible PDF documents.
Introduction
"Hi, I'm Carolina! I have been working at Cardan Technobility since November 2022. I studied Communication & Multimedia Design and have a lot of experience designing in Adobe InDesign. In addition to designing I regularly repair documents to make them accessible and make sure that our own WCAG 2.2 checklist is also accessible to use."
Tip 1: add a document title
It is important to add a document title so that people with disabilities can easily switch between tabs and retrieve the title. For example, this title is read out loud for people with visual impairments. They can also look in the title bar if they want to know the content of the document. You can also add an author, then everyone knows immediately who created the document. Ideal!
Tip 2: check colour contrast
Check colour contrast with the Web Colour Contrast Analyzer. You can already do this during the design process and when you start making certain colour combinations. According to the WCAG 2.2, the following guidelines apply:
For normal text:minimum 4.5:1
For text larger than 24px or 18pt:minimum 3.0:1
For bold text (19px/14pt): minimum 3.0:1
Non-textual content:minimum 3:01
Tip 3: Use bookmarks for easy navigation
Bookmarks are great for easy navigation in a PDF. So you can quickly navigate between different chapters!
Tip 4: ensure correctly tagged
PDF elements
A PDF document is similar to an HTML page. Make sure elements such as headings (H1, H2, H3), paragraphs, lists and tables are correctly tagged. This ensures that reading software recognises these elements and can read them out correctly. A good reading order prevents confusion and ensures that information is presented in the correct order.
If a PDF does not have a proper reading order, you may just find that when it is read out, you start at chapter 6, go to chapter 4 and on to chapter 1. You can understand that this way, of course, you can never understand the information properly. Here are some instructions to check the reading order:
Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro: this tool is your best friend when it comes to editing and checking PDF files.
Go to the Tags panel: navigate to View > Show/Hide > Navigation Panes > Tags. Here you can see the structure of your document.
Check the structure of the tags: make sure that the tags (<P>, <H1>, <H2>, etc.) are in the correct order, as you want the text to be read out.
Use the reading order tool: go to View > Show/Hide > Navigation Panes > Order. Here you can see the reading order the screen reader will follow.
Adjust where necessary!
Tip 5: add alternative text (in Adobe InDesign)
You can add alternative text in Adobe InDesign by creating an object style.
Via "object export options", you can add a label to add the alternative text. This is important so that people who cannot see the image can still "hear" the content.Of course, you should always critically examine whether an image is informative or decorative. Otherwise, you can also mark an image as an artefact. Then it will be skipped and not read out. This is often preferred.
Your PDF in Adobe Indesign for everyone!
With this approach, you ensure that everyone, regardless of their limitations, can easily navigate and understand your PDF.It is important to use these principles from the beginning of the design process. This way, you ensure that your documents are inherently accessible and you don't have to adjust things afterwards. By paying attention to digital accessibility, you make your documents usable for everyone.
Want to know more? Check out our training Creating Accessible PDF. Learn to create accessible PDF documents from MS Word or Adobe InDesign.
.jpg&w=1920&q=80)
