Steps to better structure an InDesign document to promote accessibility

Better structure in PDF documents helps readers with visual disabilities and also has SEO benefits. HTML document structural concepts are now pervasive across many formats like Word & PDF so it’s important for content authors/contributors to be familiar with methods of doc structuring. Adding paragraph styles for heading and specifying heading tags can aid in better structuring an InDesign document to promote document accessibility. Adding alternative text descriptions to all photos in a document is another important practice to enhance accessibility.

Create Paragraph Styles:

Go to the ‘Window > Styles > Paragraph Styles’ panel to start setting up paragraph styles for your normal paragraphs and heading levels (such as H1, H2, and H3). There is typically just one heading level 1, H1, in a page as the page title. A normal paragraph is typically nested within one or more headings.
To create a new paragraph style for a heading:
– Add a text frame with the size and font style you want for that level of heading. Heading 1s typical have the largest font size.
– In the ‘Paragraph Style’ panel choose ‘New Paragraph Style’ from the arrow menu.
– Give it a name like ‘Heading 4 Style’. It takes on the font style characteristics of the text frame you had select.
To give a normal paragraph text frame a heading style select that frame and click on one of the heading styles you created.

Setup Structural Tags:

To setup structural tags in your InDesign document:
– Go to ‘View > Utilities > Tags’ to open the Tags panel.
– Choose ‘New Tag’ from the arrow menu.
– Give the tag a name like ‘H4’.
To tag a heading frame (frame with a heading paragraph style applied):
– Select the heading text frame.
– Click the heading tag (such as H4) you want it to be in the tags panel from the heading tags you created. You will be able to see which text frame have tags applied in the ‘View Structure’ panel.
Other tag-related tips:
– Go to ‘View > Structure > View Structure’ to view the document hierarchy structure branching off from the ‘Root’.
– Go to ‘View > Structure > Show Tagged Frames’ to visually color-code your tagged frames. In my example document, H1s were red, H2s were green, and H3s were blue. Normal paragraphs, P, were just light gray.

Adding Alt Text to Images in InDesign:

It’s important for all photos in a document to have alternative text descriptions. You can add alternative text to images, graphics, or photos by using the ‘Object Export Options’ panel.
To add alternative text to an image in InDesign:
– Select the object/photo that you want to add alternative text to.
– Go to:’Object > Object Export Options’
– Enter alternative text for the object/photo you selected in the ‘Alt Text’ tab. It’s possible to set custom alt text for an image or choose text from a structural tag previously applied.
– Choose ‘Custom’ from the menu to enter custom alternative text for the photo.
For more information about creating good accessibility in InDesign documents see Adobe’s documentation or watch the video, Preparing InDesign Files for Accessibility.
Document accessibility related panels in InDesign

Document accessibility related panels in InDesign

Better structure in MS Word documents to promote accessibility

Better structure in MS Word and PDF documents helps readers with visual disabilities and also has SEO benefits. HTML document structural concepts are now pervasive across many formats like Word & PDF so it’s important for content authors/contributors to be familiar with methods of doc structuring. It’s important for documents posted online to be as accessible as possible. Adjusting styles for headings and specifying heading tags can aid in better structuring MS Word documents to promote document accessibility. Headings are especially important for structuring and organizing pages with lengthy content.

Documents should be structured in a hierarchical manner, generally with one H1 (heading level 1) as the page title. Bolded text sections below that are H2s (heading level 2s) and those nested beneath are H3s (heading level 3s). Document authors should be careful not to skip heading levels, you can’t have an H4 without it being nested inside an H3. Organizing content in heading sections allows sighted users to scan lengthy pages and jump to sections they’re interested in. It’s like chunking information to be more understandable. Similarly, users with assistive technologies, such as screen-readers, can jump between headings in a lengthy page to more quickly get to the information they’re interested in. See WebAIM’s article, Using Headings for Content Structure, for more information about properly structuring a document.

To specify headings in MS Word:

In Microsoft Word normal text may be changed to headings via the Heading styles in the ‘Home’ ribbon. To create a heading: select your text and click on one of the Heading styles (H1 – H4). See WebAIM’s article for more information about using headings in MS Word.
To create a heading: select your text and click on one of the Heading styles (H1 – H4).
See WebAIM’s article for more information about using headings in MS Word.

Including alternative text on images in documents:

It’s important for all photos in a document to have alternative text descriptions to pass an accessibility check. This post highlights some resources and techniques to add alt text to images in MS Word documents.

Adding Alt Text to Images in MS Word

To specify alternative text on an image in Word:
– Right-click on the image and choose ‘Format Picture’.
– Click on the ‘Layout & Properties’ icon and expand ‘Alt Text’.
– Enter your alternative text and a long description, if desired.

Adding alt text to an image in Microsoft Word

Adding alt text to an image in Microsoft Word

Running a document accessibility check in MS Word 2013

To run a document accessibility check in MS Word 2013:

  • Go To: ‘File’ > ‘Check for Issue’ button > ‘Check Accessibility’
    The Accessibility Checker Panel open to the right of your document and displays Errors and Warnings.
  • Click on an Error or Warning to get more information about the issue including ‘Why Fix’ and ‘How to Fix’.

Warnings are more subjective than Errors and are similar to Alerts in the WAVE tool from WebAIM. A Warning (MS Word) or an Alert (WAVE tool) may be more like a WCAG 2.0 Level AA concern. In the WCAG 2.0 standard Errors are about equivalent to Level A concerns. The most common type of error in a Word document is missing alt text on graphics, images, or tables. Attached is a screen of what the MS Word Accessibility Checker Panel looks like. 

ord Accessibility Checker Panel looks like.