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Re: Accessible PDF with InDesign

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From: Bevi Chagnon
Date: Jan 10, 2012 12:54PM

Andrew's right, InDesign CS 5.5 is a vast improvement over CS 5 for making
accessible PDFs from InDesign layout files. Check to see which version your
graphic designer is using. Upgrade to CS 5.5 if necessary.

I don't think the problem is with tags but instead with how the file was
constructed or with your screen reader software. Dave, here are a couple of
comments:

1) If your graphic designer was a Quark user and switched to InDesign, she
(or he) might not be constructing the document correctly. Although InDesign
looks similar to Quark, it creates and threads the text file differently
from Quark and this throws Quark users for a loop when they switch to
InDesign. Although the layout might look ok to the human eye, it's a
disaster when we view the file's construction and code, and this can cause
serious problems for accessibility (as well as XML and any other digital
cross-media publishing technology).

2) The designer should have used either of these 2 methods to lay out that
page:
a) One text frame divided into 3 columns, and the text runs from top to
bottom beginning in column 1, through column 2, to column 3.
b) Three separate text frames that are threaded (linked in Quark's
parlance), and the text runs from top to bottom beginning in the first text
frame, into the 2nd text frame, and then into the 3rd text frame.

3) The designer should have a paragraph return (a normal Enter/Return key)
after each name. Sometimes designers incorrectly use line breaks (shift +
Enter) which break the text to the next line but don't create new paragraphs
that are needed for accessibility.

4) Some screen readers run paragraphs together without a pause or drop in
voicing, regardless of how the designer creates the document. Your
description of the problem sounds like this could be the case if all of the
above items were done correctly. If I was blind and had to listen to my text
jumbled together like this, I'd hire a lawyer and start suing the pants off
some of our accessibility technology manufacturers. Their software ignores
paragraph returns, running paragraph after paragraph together into one huge
lump. Instead, their software should be giving an audible cue similar to any
other form of punctuation: that is a pause or dropping of the voice to
signal that a paragraph has ended and a new one is starting.

--Bevi Chagnon
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Bevi Chagnon | <EMAIL REMOVED>
PubCom - Trainers, consultants, designers, and developers
Print, Web, Acrobat, XML, eBooks, and Federal Section 508
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