Designing for All: A Designer’s Guide to European Accessibility Act Compliance in Adobe InDesign

The European Accessibility Act (EAA) sets clear standards for digital products and services, aiming to ensure that people with disabilities can access information and participate fully in the digital society. As designers using Adobe InDesign, you play a pivotal role in making these inclusive documents a reality.

This guide will walk you through the essential steps to embed accessibility directly into your InDesign workflow. By understanding both the how and the why behind each feature, you’ll create documents that are not only compliant but genuinely usable by a broader audience, including those who rely on screen readers, keyboard navigation, and other assistive technologies.

Step 1: Laying the Foundation – Document Structure and Styles

The most crucial element of an accessible InDesign document is its underlying structure. While your layouts might be visually stunning, screen readers and other assistive technologies don’t “see” them in the same way. Instead, they interpret the hidden “tags” and the defined reading order. Without a proper semantic structure, your content becomes a jumbled mess to assistive tech, making it unintelligible.

• 1.1. Master Your Paragraph Styles
  • Purpose: Paragraph Styles are the bedrock of semantic structure. They act as clear labels that tell assistive technologies exactly what kind of content they are encountering. For instance, a screen reader needs to know if a line of text is a main heading, a sub-heading, standard body text, or a list item. This allows users to navigate the document efficiently, jumping between sections or listening to specific types of content. Without styles, everything is just “text,” making it impossible to understand the document’s hierarchy or find specific information.
  • How to Apply:
    • Navigate to Window > Styles > Paragraph Styles.
    • Create distinct styles for all your text elements. Start with Heading 1 for your main document title or primary section titles. Then create Heading 2 for major sub-sections, Heading 3 for further divisions, and so on, maintaining a logical hierarchy. You’ll also need styles for Body Text, List Item (for bullet points and numbered lists), Caption (for image descriptions), Quote (for blockquotes), and any other unique text types in your document.
    • Crucial for Accessibility: Export Tagging. For each paragraph style, double-click on it to edit. In the dialog box, select Export Tagging from the left-hand menu.
      • In the “PDF” dropdown, map your InDesign styles to the appropriate HTML-like tags:
        • Map Heading 1 to H1
        • Map Heading 2 to H2
        • Map Heading 3 to H3
        • Map Body Text to P (for paragraph)
        • Map List to L (for list container) and List Item to LI (for individual list items). This nested tagging is essential for screen readers to recognize true lists.
        • Map Caption to P or a specific tag like Figure if you have one.
        • Map Quote to BlockQuote.
      • This process ensures that when your InDesign document is exported to PDF, it carries a hidden, readable structure that assistive technologies can interpret.
• 1.2. Utilize Character Styles for Emphasis
  • Purpose: Character styles are used to apply formatting (like bold, italic, or a different color) to specific words or phrases within a paragraph, without altering the paragraph’s overall semantic meaning or structure. If you manually apply bold or italic without a character style, this is considered a “local override,” and it doesn’t convey any special meaning to a screen reader. A screen reader will just read the text, often ignoring the visual emphasis.
  • How to Apply: Access Window > Styles > Character Styles. Create styles for emphasis, strong importance, code snippets, or other inline formatting. Apply these character styles to specific text selections, ensuring consistency and maintainability.

Step 2: Ensuring Logical Reading Order – The Articles Panel

Once your content has a proper semantic structure, you need to explicitly tell InDesign the intended reading order of all objects on your pages. This is especially vital for complex layouts where content frames might not simply stack top-to-bottom or left-to-right. Without a defined reading order, a screen reader might jump erratically across your page, reading a sidebar before the main text, or a caption before the image it describes, rendering the document confusing or even unusable.

• 2.1. Define Reading Flow with the Articles Panel
  • Purpose: The Articles panel is your control center for dictating the sequence in which content is read aloud by screen readers and how users can navigate through a document using keyboard commands (like the Tab key). It defines the “narrative” flow of your document.
  • How to Apply:
    • Open the Articles panel by going to Window > Utilities > Articles.
    • Drag and drop every single text frame, image frame, grouped object, or any other content object into the Articles panel. The order in which you arrange them in this panel directly dictates their reading sequence.
    • Think Like a Screen Reader User: Always imagine how a visually impaired user would experience your document. What is the most logical and coherent flow of information? Typically, this means content is read from left to right, then top to bottom on a page. However, for multi-column layouts, sidebars, or call-out boxes, you must explicitly define the order to prevent misinterpretation.
    • You can create multiple “articles” within a single InDesign document if you have distinct, self-contained sections that should be read independently or in a specific sequence.

Step 3: Making Visuals Accessible – Alternative Text for Images

Images, graphs, charts, diagrams, and any other visual elements are inaccessible to users who cannot see them. Without alternative text (Alt Text), these users miss out on crucial information, making the document incomplete or incomprehensible.

• 3.1. Provide Descriptive Alt Text
  • Purpose: Alternative text (Alt Text) is a concise, descriptive text explanation of an image’s content and its function within the document. When a screen reader encounters an image, it reads this Alt Text aloud, providing context and meaning to visually impaired users. This ensures that everyone receives the same information, regardless of their visual ability.
  • How to Apply:
    • Select an image frame on your InDesign page.
    • Go to Object > Object Export Options… (or simply right-click the image frame and select Object Export Options from the contextual menu).
    • Click the Alt Text tab in the dialog box.
    • From the “Alt Text Source” dropdown, choose Custom.
    • In the provided text field, write a concise yet thorough description of the image.
      • Example: Instead of just “Chart,” a good Alt Text might be “Line chart showing a steady increase in website traffic over six months, peaking in December.” Describe what the image is and what important information it conveys.
    • For Decorative Images: If an image is purely for aesthetic appeal and conveys no essential information to the reader (for example, a background texture, a line break graphic, or a purely decorative border), select Decorative from the “Alt Text Source” dropdown. This tells screen readers to ignore the image, preventing unnecessary clutter in the audio output for the user.

Step 4: Building Navigable Content – Bookmarks and Hyperlinks

Helping users navigate your document efficiently and understand where links lead is a fundamental aspect of digital accessibility. It empowers users to quickly find the information they need, especially in longer documents.

• 4.1. Create Bookmarks for Navigation
  • Purpose: Bookmarks create an interactive table of contents or navigation pane within your exported PDF. This allows users, particularly those navigating with screen readers or keyboard alone, to jump directly to specific sections or headings within the document without having to scroll through every page. It’s like having a digital, clickable index.
  • How to Apply:
    • Open the Bookmarks panel by going to Window > Interactive > Bookmarks.
    • You can manually create bookmarks: Select the text frame or the specific text (like a heading) where you want a bookmark to begin. Then, click the “New Bookmark” icon (a small page with a folded corner) at the bottom of the panel. InDesign will use the selected text content as the bookmark name.
    • Tip: Automate This! For maximum efficiency, integrate bookmark creation with your Paragraph Styles. When you’re configuring Export Tagging for your Heading styles (H1, H2, H3), you’ll see a checkbox labeled Create PDF Bookmarks. Select this for all your heading styles. When you export, InDesign will automatically generate bookmarks based on these styles, reflecting your document’s hierarchical structure.
• 4.2. Ensure Accessible Hyperlinks
  • Purpose: Hyperlinks are the pathways of digital documents. For accessibility, they must be descriptive and clearly indicate their destination or purpose. Ambiguous link text like “Click here” or “Read more” provides no context to a screen reader user out of context, forcing them to guess where the link leads. Descriptive link text allows users to understand the link’s purpose and decide whether to follow it without needing to hear the surrounding content.
  • How to Apply:
    • Open the Hyperlinks panel by going to Window > Interactive > Hyperlinks.
    • Select the text you want to transform into a hyperlink.
    • Click the “New Hyperlink” icon (often represented by a chain link icon).
    • In the “New Hyperlink” dialog box, ensure the “Text” field (or the selected text on the page) accurately describes the link’s purpose. For example, instead of “Click here,” use “Visit the European Commission website for more details” or “Download the full report.”
    • Make sure the link is correctly configured to go to a URL, file, page, or text anchor as intended.

Step 5: Structuring Data Clearly – Accessible Tables

Tables are excellent for presenting structured data, but they can be incredibly confusing for screen reader users if not properly tagged. Without designated headers, a screen reader will read cell by cell without any context, making it impossible to understand which piece of data relates to which column or row.

• 5.1. Define Table Headers
  • Purpose: Defining table headers explicitly tells assistive technologies which rows or columns serve as labels for the data below or across. This allows a screen reader to announce the header for each cell as the user navigates the table (e.g., “Name: John Doe,” “Age: 30”), making the data meaningful and understandable.
  • How to Apply:
    • Create your table in InDesign.
    • Select the row or rows you intend to be headers for your table. These are typically the top row(s) that identify the content of each column.
    • Go to Table > Convert Rows to Header. InDesign will visually separate these rows and apply the necessary internal tagging.
    • Next, ensure your Table Options are set correctly. Go to Table > Table Options > Table Setup…. In this dialog box, make sure the Include Header checkbox is selected.
    • Important Consideration: Strive to keep tables as simple and logical as possible. Avoid using merged cells or overly complex nested structures if you can, as these can significantly complicate (or even break) the accessibility tagging and make the table difficult for screen readers to interpret correctly. If complex data absolutely requires merging, test thoroughly in Acrobat Pro to confirm accessibility.

Step 6: Visual Clarity – Color Contrast (Design Phase)

While InDesign itself doesn’t have a built-in color contrast checker, ensuring sufficient color contrast is a critical accessibility requirement that is primarily managed during the design phase. Poor color contrast can make text unreadable for individuals with low vision, color blindness, or even those in bright lighting conditions.

• 6.1. Adhere to WCAG Contrast Ratios
  • Purpose: Sufficient contrast between text and its background ensures readability for the widest possible audience. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which are widely adopted and align with EAA principles, recommend specific contrast ratios:
    • 4.5:1 for normal-sized text.
    • 3:1 for large text (typically 18pt regular or 14pt bold and larger).
  • How to Apply:
    • During your color palette selection: Proactively choose colors with accessibility in mind.
    • Throughout the design process: Use online contrast checker tools (such as the WebAIM Contrast Checker, Contrast Checker by Adobe, or various browser extensions) to test your chosen text and background color combinations. Input the hexadecimal color codes of your text and background, and the tool will calculate the contrast ratio and tell you if it meets WCAG standards.
    • Crucial Principle: Never use color as the only means to convey information. For example, if you highlight errors in red, also provide a text label like “Error: Invalid input” or an icon to ensure color-blind users understand the meaning.

Step 7: Final Output – Exporting an Accessible PDF

All your meticulous work in InDesign to create a structured and tagged document culminates in the PDF export process. If the export settings are incorrect, all your accessibility efforts can be undone, resulting in an inaccessible PDF.

• 7.1. Choose the Right Export Settings
  • Purpose: The PDF export settings are paramount for preserving all the accessibility features you’ve meticulously implemented in InDesign. Correct settings ensure your PDF is properly “tagged” (carrying the semantic structure), that the reading order is maintained, and that the document properties are set for assistive technologies.
  • How to Apply:
    • Go to File > Export…
    • In the “Save As” dialog, choose Adobe PDF (Interactive) from the “Save as type” (Windows) or “Format” (macOS) dropdown for most accessible digital documents. While Adobe PDF (Print) can also be used, you’ll need to manually ensure tagging options are selected within its preset.
    • In the Export Adobe PDF Dialog Box (This is where the magic happens!):
      • General Tab:
        • Check Create Tagged PDF. This is the single most critical checkbox! It tells InDesign to embed all the structural tags (H1, P, L, LI, and more) and reading order information into the PDF. Without this, your PDF is just an image of text, unintelligible to screen readers.
        • Check Use Structure for Tab Order. This ensures that interactive elements (like form fields or hyperlinks) are navigated by keyboard users in the logical order defined by your document’s structure (and your Articles panel).
      • Advanced Tab:
        • Set Display Title to Document Title (or File Name). This is the title that will be announced by screen readers when the PDF is opened. A meaningful title helps users understand the document’s content immediately.
        • Select the document’s primary Language from the dropdown list. This allows screen readers to use the correct pronunciation and linguistic rules, significantly improving the audio experience for multilingual content.
      • Security Tab: Avoid setting any security restrictions (like password protection that prevents copying or content access) that would inhibit assistive technologies from reading or interpreting the document content.

Step 8: Verification – Checking Your Work

Designing for accessibility is an iterative process, not a one-off task. Always verify your exported PDF to catch any issues that might have slipped through. This final check is crucial for ensuring true compliance and usability.

• 8.1. Use Adobe Acrobat Pro’s Accessibility Checker
  • Purpose: Adobe Acrobat Pro has a powerful, built-in “Accessibility Full Check” tool designed specifically to identify common accessibility issues within your exported PDF. It scans the document for missing tags, incorrect reading order, color contrast issues, and a multitude of other potential barriers.
  • How to Apply:
    • Open your exported PDF document in Adobe Acrobat Pro.
    • Navigate to Tools > Accessibility > Full Check (or Accessibility Report).
    • Run the check. Review the generated report meticulously. Address any items flagged as “Fails” immediately, as these represent significant barriers. Carefully review “Warnings” as well, as they often indicate areas that require manual review or could still pose usability challenges.
• 8.2. Perform a Manual Screen Reader Test
  • Purpose: While automated checkers are invaluable, the ultimate test of an accessible document is how it performs with actual assistive technology. Manually navigating your PDF with a screen reader provides a real-world perspective on how your document is perceived by its target users. It allows you to catch nuances that automated tools might miss, such as awkward phrasing in alt text, illogical jumps in content, or confusing table readings.
  • How to Apply:
    • Download and install a free screen reader like NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access) for Windows, or use the built-in screen readers like VoiceOver for macOS or Narrator for Windows.
    • Open your exported PDF using the screen reader.
    • Navigate through the document using only keyboard commands (Tab, Shift+Tab, arrow keys, heading navigation commands, link navigation commands). Listen carefully to how the content is read aloud.
    • Ask yourself: Does the content make logical sense? Is anything skipped or read out of order? Are images described adequately? Can you easily navigate between headings and links? Is the table data intelligible?

Key Steps for InDesign Accessibility

Essential steps for InDesign designers to ensure their documents align with the European Accessibility Act principles:

1. Master Paragraph Styles:
   • Create distinct paragraph styles for all text elements (Heading 1, Heading 2, Body Text, List Item, Caption, Quote).
   • Configure Export Tagging for each style to map to appropriate PDF tags (H1, H2, P, L, LI, BlockQuote, Figure).
2. Utilize Character Styles for Emphasis:
   • Create character styles for inline formatting (bold, italic, color changes) to maintain semantic integrity.
3. Define Reading Order with Articles Panel:
   • Drag all content frames into the Articles panel in the exact logical reading sequence.
4. Provide Descriptive Alt Text for Images:
   • For meaningful images, use Object Export Options to add descriptive Custom Alt Text.
   • Mark purely decorative images as Decorative in Object Export Options.
5. Create Bookmarks for Navigation:
   • Enable Create PDF Bookmarks in your heading paragraph styles’ Export Tagging to automatically generate an interactive table of contents.
6. Ensure Accessible Hyperlinks:
   • Create hyperlinks with descriptive text that clearly indicates the link’s purpose and destination.
7. Define Table Headers:
   • Select header rows in your tables and use Table > Convert Rows to Header.
   • Ensure Include Header is checked in Table Options > Table Setup.
8. Adhere to Color Contrast Ratios:
   • Use external tools to verify text and background color contrast meets WCAG standards (4.5:1 for normal text, 3:1 for large text).
   • Never use color as the sole means to convey information.
9. Export to Accessible PDF:
   • Export using Adobe PDF (Interactive).
   • Crucially, check Create Tagged PDF and Use Structure for Tab Order in the General tab.
   • Set Display Title and select the document’s Language in the Advanced tab.
   • Avoid security settings that block assistive technologies.
10. Verify with Acrobat Pro’s Accessibility Checker:
    • Open the exported PDF in Acrobat Pro and run Tools > Accessibility > Full Check. Resolve all “Fails” and review “Warnings.”
11. Perform Manual Screen Reader Test:
    • Navigate your PDF using a screen reader (like NVDA, VoiceOver, or Narrator) and keyboard commands to confirm logical flow and comprehension.

To make applying these principles even easier, here’s a simple, interactive checklist tool you can use directly in your browser.