InDesign Accessibility 2.0

Technical level: Intermediate (knowledge of InDesign and HTML recommended)

Duration: 2 hours (online self-paced class, estimate)

IAAP Education Credits: 2.00 (This course counts toward renewal of IAAP certification)

Course Synopsis:

Accessibility in InDesign begins in the source document, long before you export. This course shows you how to build that structure into your normal design workflow, so the PDFs, EPUBs, and HTML files you produce are accessible every time. It is written for content writers and document designers who are already comfortable with InDesign basics.

By the end of the course, you will be able to:

Explain the difference between how a document looks and how it is structured, and how the styles you apply become tags in the exported file.
Build a document's structural foundation with paragraph and character styles, a proper heading hierarchy, real lists, and correct language identification.
Control reading order using text frames, threading, and the Articles panel.
Write effective alt text, handle decorative and complex images, and make design choices that account for color contrast and readability.
Create real tables, semantic links, bookmarks, and a generated table of contents that work for people using screen readers.
Choose the right export format, export cleanly, validate the result, and (for PDFs) finish any remaining remediation in Adobe Acrobat Pro.
Recognize and avoid the common traps that break accessibility on export.