New Solutions for Creating Accessible PDF Documents with Adobe ® InDesign ® CS5.5
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Adobe InDesign CS5.5 White Paper New Solutions for Creating Accessible PDF Documents with Adobe® InDesign® CS5.5 Table of Contents 1 Requirements for Accessibility 1 The InDesign CS5.5to-Accessible PDF Workflow at a Glance 3 Step-by-step Guide to Creating an Accessible PDF 14 Additional Resources` Producing a PDF from InDesign that’s machine-readable, and optimized for screen readers and assistive devices—generally referred to as an “accessible” PDF—is critical for compliance with accessibility standards and regulations such as WCAG 2.0 and Section 508 of the U.S. Government’s Rehabilitation Act. In addition, producing accessible content plays a key role in optimizing PDFs for successful indexing by Internet search engines. InDesign CS5.5 overcomes many of the obstacles to the efficient production of accessible PDFs which existed in previous versions, enabling a simplified layout-to-accessible-PDF workflow that dramatically reduces the time and effort required to produce accessible PDF documents. Most of the necessary tasks have been shifted from Acrobat to InDesign, allowing hierarchical and structural information to originate in the InDesign file, making updates and revisions faster and easier as well. To accomplish the tasks described in this white paper, you will need: • Adobe InDesign CS5.5 software—to prepare a document for accessible PDF export using the processes described in this white paper. • Adobe Acrobat Professional—the Acrobat-specific steps required to finalize the accessibility process cannot be accomplished in the free Adobe Reader application. Optionally, you may also need: • Access to Assistive Technology (AT)—for testing and verifying results beyond Acrobat’s built-in accessibility accommodations. Requirements for Accessibility An electronic document is accessible if it can be used by people with disabilities such as blindness, low vision, or limited mobility. An accessible PDF document can be navigated by persons with disabilities when using Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader. These users can use third party assistive technology such as screen readers, or in some cases the built in accommodations found in Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader. This requires the tagging of all document content based on its hierarchical structure (headings, paragraphs, lists, tables, etc.), and the correct ordering of that content in a linear path from start to finish. An additional requirement for accessible documents is the identification and description of non-text content (such as graphics and images) for users with disabilities. The InDesign CS5.5-to-Accessible PDF Workflow at a Glance • Paragraph Styles mapped to Export Tags • Language assigned • Images anchored in text flow • Tab Order set to Use Document Structure • Alt text assigned to images • Accessibility check • Bookmarks/TOC/Hyperlinks/Cross-references • Content order defined in Articles panel • File metadata added

The majority of the work necessary to properly structure and prepare a document for accessibility can now be done directly in InDesign CS5.5, reducing the post-export work required in Acrobat to a mere handful of steps. InDesign CS5.5’s new features make the InDesign-to-PDF workflow faster and easier. Now that InDesign allows you to specify and store the document’s structural hierarchy and content order, that information is preserved and available should you need to modify the document and export a new PDF. The necessary steps are: Use Paragraph styles consistently throughout your document...

Change display name from Filename to Document Title (Acrobat Pro X) By default, Acrobat displays the PDF filename in the title bar of the document window. For accessibility purposes, this should be replaced by the document title established in InDesign’s File Information dialog. To do so, choose Document Title instead of Filename in the Initial View options of Acrobat’s Document Properties dialog. Set the Tab Order to Follow Structure in the Pages pane (Acrobat Pro X) The structure established in InDesign’s Articles panel is saved within the exported PDF, but you must tell Acrobat to honor...

Shaw: tPUB and HTML i* PDI [BjiiiL (\Jrayraphl jAuEuinjlkl Ksiitnote jAuto^Jiiii! Guide turokflFftry lAuLulnatkl T.indr ftnnk Fnrry TlTlt? nid Town jALitnm^ilr] Guide Book En Try Title Green jAutcmalicJ FIFSTL Pirt [Autamatit] Fork RaTing Numbered l^sts. Green Stat Categories pTutomatiT] Slaiv {Automatic! For a project with styles already present, all styles in the document can be mapped in one step by choosing Edit All Export Tags from the Paragraph Styles panel menu (left). In the resulting dialog (right), click the PDF radio button and assign PDF tags from the pull-down menus in the...

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In the final PDF, Alt text appears as a tool tip when the user hovers over an image. That same Alt text is read as a description of the image when Acrobat’s Read Out Loud feature is used, or when the PDF is read by an assistive device or screen reading software. Anchor images into the text flow When images are placed on a page in a print layout, they do not necessarily need to be placed adjacent to the copy that refers to them. For sighted users, it’s not unusual for text to contain references to an image located elsewhere in the document. However, when you’re establishing a flow of content...