Creating accessible PDFs from InDesign and Acrobat (1 day)
About the course
Creating accessible PDFs is about so much more than simply tagging your documents. That's why this course also includes in-depth coverage of a wide range of accessible content creation techniques. Employing these techniques will not only ensure that you produce the most accessible documents possible, but will also save you time, both in the content creation stage itself and in later editing.
Client testimonials for this course
Course outline
Session 1 — InDesign (CS3 to CS5.5)
Topics include:
- Understanding key InDesign version differences
- Applying structure with headings, lists, hyperlinks …
- Images, alt text, and handling charts effectively
- Designing complex tables for accessibility and usability
- Colour contrast, colour blindness, backgrounds
- Text formatting and font encoding issues and techniques
- The limitations of mapping styles to tags
- Setting the reading order
- Bookmarks and tables of contents issues and techniques
- Meta data
Session 2 — Acrobat Professional (8, 9 or X)
Topics include:
- Workflow tips
- Understanding key Acrobat/Reader and InDesign version differences
- Understanding Acrobat PDF accessibility tools
- Editing PDFs for multiple platforms and devices
- Applying structure with headings, lists, hyperlinks …
- Images and alt text
- Footnotes, abbreviations/acronyms, URLs and the language of parts
- Data tables: from simple to complex
- Tables of contents and bookmarks
- Document management
- How and why to avoid opening PDFs in a browser
Accessible PDF forms
Please note that a brief overview of PDF forms can be included in a one-day course. However, as the basics of PDF forms accessibility take a minimum of half a day to cover properly, this topic is more often included in our advanced course, or as a dedicated one-day creating accessible PDF forms course.
Client testimonials
Giuseppina Valenza, Tandridge District Council
"After a day's training with Ted, we now have in-house expertise in creating accessible PDFs. This has meant we can make sure our website documents are fully accessible. We also appreciate Ted's on-going advice, which he is always happy to give. The course was also excellent value for money, which is essential for a small district council like ours.
Lisa McGann, Marketing Consultant, AECOM
"Ted was happy to tailor the training course to our needs. He is a patient trainer and provides comprehensive course notes for reference."
Further information
For further information please call us on 01932 355 222 or 07918 952 874.

