Creating Accessible PDFs with InDesign & Acrobat

You can do nearly all of the work necessary to properly structure and prepare a document for accessibility directly in InDesign, leaving just a final check to complete in Acrobat.

https://www.adobe.com/accessibility/products/indesign.html

1. Use paragraph styles

Consistent use of InDesign paragraph styles throughout a document is critical for efficiently and successfully exporting the content to PDF. Base styles on their hierarchical structure (main headline, secondary headings, subheading, and so on) and apply them appropriately to paragraphs according to their hierarchical role in the document.

2. Establish export tag relationships

As you create InDesign styles, set each style’s Export Tagging (in the Paragraph Style Options dialog) according to its role in the document— paragraph (P), heading levels 1 through 6 (H1–H6), table cells, table headers, bulleted lists, or artifacts. Tables and bulleted and numbered lists are recognized automatically in the export process and tagged appropriately.

3. Add alternative text for images

Screen readers can only indicate the presence of an image. Conveying what the image depicts requires providing alternative text (alt text). With the Object Export Options in InDesign, you can specify alt text.

4. Establish content order

The tagging order of a PDF document is essential to its readability. The Articles panel in InDesign enables you to precisely define which content in your document gets tagged and in what order. You can add content by dragging and dropping frames and objects into the Articles panel and then arranging them in the desired reading order. 

5. Specify a document title and description

For accessibility, as well as for search engine optimization, a PDF file requires a document title and a description of its contents. When you save this information in the InDesign File Information dialog, it is automatically transferred to Acrobat.

6. Export as PDF with settings optimized for accessibility

7. Check Accessibility in Acrobat

After these steps are completed, confirm that the document has no errors by choosing Full Check from the Acrobat accessibility tools. Be sure to test all links before manually passing the rule.