Adobe InDesign is an industry-standard application that is used broadly across Minnesota state government. Communications staff and graphic designers commonly use the program to create visual materials to communicate with the public. These materials range from internal documents, to publicly consumable graphics, legislative reports and more.

There’s more than meets the eye when it comes to creating an effective and usable document or report. Designers must not only consider the visual appeal of their piece, but also ensure that the document is accessible to all Minnesotans, some of whom rely on assistive technology — such as screen readers — to access information. The State of Minnesota’s accessibility standards requires that all documents meet Section 508 of the Workforce Rehabilitation Act and WCAG 2.0. These standards outline requirements for document structure, bookmarks, alternative (alt) text, and other accessibility features are present in every document. These features are critical for non-sighted users to navigate a document using screen reading software such as JAWS or NVDA, but also add functionality for sighted users.

As content creators and designers typically use InDesign for complex, graphic-intensive documents (e.g., infographics) which can lead to equally complex accessibility issues once the document is exported from InDesign to PDF. Some of the issues encountered include tagging errors or a myriad of other problems that can be difficult and time-intensive to fix in applications such Adobe Acrobat Pro or CommonLook. Further compounding and complicating the creation of accessible documents, training materials that are adequate for private-sector use often do not meet the state’s stringent accessibility requirements.

So how does a graphic designer working for the state ensure that documents are both attractive and accessible, while minimizing accessibility mitigation time?

The answer: Optimize the InDesign document for accessibility in order to reduce the time spent adjusting tags, reading order, and alt text in Acrobat Pro.

Below are a few basic tips for optimizing documents for accessibility in Adobe InDesign.

For information about the accessibility of earlier versions, in addition to a variety of other helpful resources, visit Adobe’s InDesign Accessibility site.

Tips for Optimizing Accessibility in Adobe InDesign CC

• Use Paragraph Styles to assign heading/tag structures like H1, H2, P, etc. Assign heading levels to a particular paragraph style under “Export Tagging” in the paragraph style options.
• Add alt text to images and other objects that need it by selecting the object and selecting Object > Object Export Options from the menu bar. Select “Custom” from the “Alt Text Source” dropdown menu and enter the desired alt text.
  • Best Practice: Ensure the Alt Text accurately describes the image or graphic so that the user understands the information it is trying to convey or its importance in the document.
• Acrobat Pro’s tag tree will name tags after the InDesign Paragraph Styles, not the heading structure assigned to those styles. To check whether the correct heading level is applied, view the Class Roles in Acrobat Pro.
  • Best Practice: Every InDesign document should have at least 3 layers: text, images, and background artifacts. In the layer reserved specifically for text, arrange each text element from bottom to top (the reverse of typical reading order). This approach is helpful in reducing tagging errors upon export from InDesign.
• Use the Articles panel in InDesign to assign document reading order. Select multiple objects by holding the shift key and selecting objects in the order in which you want them to appear in the Articles panel (and subsequent reading order). These objects can then be added as a group to the articles panel. Important step: In the Articles panel options, make sure to check the “Use for Reading Order in Tagged PDF” option.
• Create bookmarks in Acrobat Pro instead of using InDesign.
• For more helpful tips on optimizing your documents, websites, and emails for accessibility, visit the Minnesota Office of Accessibility’s website.

Please note: These above tips apply specifically to InDesign Creative Cloud (CC), which includes significant improvements in the area of accessibility over previous versions.