Introduction to reading order

When faced with a complex spread an experienced, sighted reader will quickly make subconscious decisions on the hierarchy and reading order.

For the best accessibility we should check and, if necessary, redefine the 'reading order' - the order that text on the page is searched and read out - using the CircularFLO Reading Order tools.

When designing a spread in InDesign the order that objects are added to the document is used to define their reading order. This means that often the headings, captions, body text and page numbers can easily be mixed up unintentionally as the document is designed and edited.

The Circular Software Accessibility Tools Panel features three Reading Order Tools to Auto define reading order, Manually define the reading order and to Amend or clear the reading order without changing the design of your spreads.

Reading order is indicated with extra objects applied to the FLO_INFO layer. This layer is on top of the main layers and set to non-printing. Share the visual InDesign by changing the layer to printing or choosing to export non-printing layers when exporting directly from InDesign.