Accessibility Features and Best Practices for Publications

Publications include a range of accessibility features and support accessibility best practices. This article helps you build a more accessible e-catalog. 

What Publications do automatically

• Screen-reader text layer. Every page includes an invisible text layer pulled from your PDF, so screen readers can read the catalog copy. This is always on — but it only works if your PDF contains real, selectable text. A scanned or image-only PDF has no text to extract, so screen readers get nothing from it.
• Keyboard support for interactive elements. Buttons, links, and widgets can be reached with Tab, activated with Enter or Space, and pop-ups close with Escape.
• Search-friendly text pages. Each publish also generates plain-text pages behind the scenes so search engines can index your content.

What you control in the editor

The Accessibility & SEO panel is the right place to add text alternatives. Use it to:

1. Add alt text to meaningful images. Select the image and write a short, specific description of what it shows or does. This clears the most common accessibility check (images must have alternative text).
2. Give buttons and links descriptive names. Name the action, not the element — for example “Download recipe PDF,” not “link” or “download.” Add the text to the base interactive element, not a hover-state layer.
3. Skip decorative shapes. For purely decorative elements (background ellipses, rectangles, dividers), you don’t need alt text — leaving it empty is correct. If the AI helper added a description to a decorative shape, it’s fine to remove it.

Optional — AI alt text. Your team can enable an AI helper that suggests short alt text automatically. It is opt-in and per-element, and you should always review its suggestions — it may label decorative shapes that don’t need a description. See Automated Alt Text for Images.

Best practices

• Upload PDFs with real, selectable text — not flattened or scanned images. This is the single biggest factor in whether a publication is readable by assistive technology.
• Add alt text to every image that carries meaning (products, offers, instructions).
• Never put critical information only in imagery — if it matters, make sure it also exists as real text.
• Write for a screen-reader user: describe the purpose, keep it concise, and don’t start with “image of.”

Current limitations to be aware of

A few things the platform does not do today, so you can plan around them:

• Page navigation isn’t keyboard-driven. Interactive elements are keyboard-accessible, but there is no keyboard shortcut to flip between pages.
• The page image relies on the PDF text layer. Each page’s accessible content comes from the invisible text layer extracted from your PDF — the page image itself carries no separate alt text. This is another reason to upload PDFs with real, selectable text.

Frequently asked questions

Does adding alt text make my publication ADA compliant?
Alt text is an important part of accessibility, but compliance depends on your whole publication and your own requirements — so we describe these as accessibility features and best practices rather than a guarantee of ADA or WCAG compliance.

Do I need to add alt text to the page arrows or the top toolbar buttons?
Yes, give these a short name too. The page arrows and toolbar buttons are design elements, so screen readers rely on the text set on them. Use short action names like Next page, Previous page, Download PDF, or Fullscreen. Some templates may already include these names, but it is worth checking rather than assuming.

Screen readers aren’t reading my catalog text — why?
The screen-reader text layer is pulled from your PDF, so it only works if the PDF contains real, selectable text. If yours is scanned or image-only, re-export or re-create it with live text and re-upload.

Should I add alt text to decorative shapes (ellipses, rectangles, dividers)?
No — decorative elements don’t need alt text. If the AI helper added a description to one, it’s fine to remove it.

Questions? Contact us at support@getfastr.com.