How to Make Accessible Footnotes in Adobe InDesign CC

This tutorial shows how to add footnotes to an InDesign layout, and how the final tags and tag reading order should be in the exported accessible tagged PDF.

By Bevi Chagnon, PubCom
April, 2019

Software: Adobe InDesign 2019 or later.

These demonstration files use Adobe InDesign CC:2019 in order to create a fully tag, accessible PDF with footnotes.

The tutorial instructions are in the files themselves.

Adobe InDesign CC:2019 layout file (both INDD and IDML).
Ver 1 of a PDF exported from InDesign.
Ver 2 of a PDF exported from InDesign, where the tags were adjusted in Acrobat for better accessibility.

Download a ZIP of these files and examine them in InDesign and Acrobat Pro DC.

Open both PDF versions and compare their tag structure and reading orders. Version 2 is the preferred reading order.

Untitled Document

Learn to fish. Save money. Time. Hassle.

Our services help you maximize your technology, streamline your workflow, and seamlessly build accessibility into your digital publications. Our mission is to train and coach you so well that you no longer need us or outside remediation services.

By teaching you how to fish — and make accessible PDFs right out of the box — we hope to work ourselves out of our jobs!

PubCom has a full suite of courses on accessibility topics, as well as traditional desktop publishing, digital media, and website development. We started offering accessibility training to the federal government in 2001 right after Section 508 and WCAG 1.0 went into effect in the US. That was 23+ years ago and we haven't stopped yet!

The takeaway: we know publishing, from editorial to design to distribution (print and digital) — and we're accessibility experts (Bevi Chagnon is a delegate to the ISO committee for PDF accessibility that creates the PDF/UA standard). We share our knowledge and help you learn to fish. Our little fisherman keeps us on our goal.

Sketch: Our fisherman has learned to fish and is now inclusive and accessible.