8 Best Practices for Creating Accessible PDFs in InDesign

An accessible PDF is one that still makes sense when nobody can see it. The layout you built for the eye needs a second, hidden layer underneath for assistive technology: a structure it can follow, images it can describe, and an order it can trust. Get that layer right, and your PDF or EPUB works for someone using a screen reader, a keyboard, or magnification the same way it works for everyone else.

Whoever builds the file builds the accessibility into it. That means you: designers, marketers, publishers, and the government or enterprise teams pushing out documents at scale. The eight practices below are the ones worth your time, and each one happens in the source file, before the PDF ever exports.

It is also the law, not just good practice. The ADA and Section 508 in the US. The European Accessibility Act and EN 301 549 in the EU. All of them expect documents people can actually use. The payoff runs both ways, too: the same structure that guides a screen reader helps search engines and AI tools read your content, so accessible files are easier to find.

How to Build Accessibility Into Your InDesign File

None of these are hard on their own. Skip one, though, and the file quietly breaks for somebody who needs it. Here they are, roughly in the order you would work through them.

1. Use paragraph styles and export tags for headings

To set heading structure, apply paragraph styles to all text, then map each style to an export tag.

• Apply a paragraph style to every heading and body paragraph.
• Open Paragraph Style Options > Export Tagging.
• In the PDF section, set the tag: H1 for the title, H2 for subheads, P for body text.
• Repeat for each style, then export.

Manual bold text is invisible to a screen reader. A style tagged as a heading is not. Tags are what assistive technology reads, so this one habit prevents more problems than any other.

2. Add alt text and mark decorative images as artifacts

Alt text tells a screen reader what an image shows. Decorative images should be hidden from it instead.

• Select the image, then open Object > Object Export Options.
• On the Alt Text tab, write a short, specific description. Skip “image of,” and for charts give the main point, not every number.
• For a decorative image, open the Tagged PDF tab and set Apply Tag to Artifact so screen readers skip it.

Nobody should have to sit through “decorative swoosh” three times to reach the next sentence.

3. Set the reading order in the Articles panel

The Articles panel sets the order your content is tagged and read in. Position on the page does not set it. You do.

• Open Window > Articles.
• Drag your content into the panel in the order it should be read.
• From the panel menu, tick “Use for Tagging Order in Tagged PDF.”
• Anchor images and text frames inline so nothing floats loose.

Two-column spreads, sidebars, pull quotes, and captions are where this falls apart. Without a set order, a screen reader can jump from a headline into a footnote and back out again.

4. Build real tables and lists

Screen readers only understand tables and lists that are built with the real tools, not faked with spacing.

• Build lists with the built-in bulleted and numbered list styles.
• Build tables with the table tool, not tabs or text boxes.
• Mark the header row: select it, then choose Table > Convert Rows > To Header.

Never use a table to force a layout. If it looks like a list but is not tagged as one, it reads aloud as one long run-on line.

5. Set the document title and language

The title is what a screen reader announces first, and the language tells it how to pronounce the words.

• Go to File > File Info and set a real document title, so “Q3-final-v4” is not what people hear.
• On export, open the Advanced tab and set Display Title to Document Title.
• Confirm the document language in Acrobat after you export.

Small settings. Big difference for the person listening.

6. Write clear link text and keep color contrast high

Link text should say where it goes, and color should never be the only thing carrying meaning.

• Write descriptive links. “Read the accessibility report” guides a screen reader user; “Click here” tells them nothing.
• Keep body text at a 4.5:1 contrast ratio against its background.
• Pair color with a label, an icon, or a shape, so a color-blind reader is not left guessing.

7. Export a tagged PDF

Exporting with tags carries your styles, alt text, and reading order into the file.

• Go to File > Export > Adobe PDF and switch on Create Tagged PDF.
• Print and Interactive export both keep your Articles order.
• Use Interactive if the file has fillable form fields, and tick Use Structure for Tab Order.

You can also export to EPUB, and the same structure work carries straight into accessible EPUBs.

8. Check the PDF with Acrobat and a screen reader

A clean export gets you most of the way, not all of it. Checking is what confirms the file actually works.

• Run Acrobat’s Accessibility Checker and fix what it flags.
• Check the file against PDF/UA and WCAG.
• Test it with a real screen reader, or with someone who uses one, to catch what automated tools miss.

Expect to finish the last bit by hand.

Where InDesign stops and expert help begins

The tool itself takes you a long way, and building accessibility in from the first draft is far cheaper than adding it later. But it has its limits. Interactive forms, dense data tables, math, scanned artwork, and the older, complex files that pile up over years still need a person to finish the job and check that it really works.

That is the part Documenta11y handles. Our document accessibility services come from 100+ accessibility specialists, and every file is validated against both PDF/UA and WCAG. Here is the part that matters: your documents are tested and certified by real screen reader users, people with disabilities, not just run through a tool by sighted staff. When your InDesign files need to be accessible, and you can prove it, that is where we step in.

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