Native PDF/UA-compliant export (European Accessibility Act)
With the entry into force on June 28, 2025 of European Directive 2019/882 (European Accessibility Act, EAA), the production of accessible digital documents has become a legal obligation for a wide range of public and private operators working in the European market. The regulation requires that electronic documents — including PDFs — conform to the PDF/UA standard (ISO 14289-1) and the technical standard EN 301 549.
At present, Adobe InDesign is not capable of natively exporting PDFs that are PDF/UA compliant and verifiable with third-party tools such as PAC. This limitation forces professionals to rely on third-party plugins or manual corrections in Acrobat Pro after every export — resulting in additional costs, operational inefficiencies, and the risk of errors in every production cycle.
Bringing InDesign into compliance with these requirements is today a legal necessity for thousands of European professionals who use the software daily to produce institutional communications, reports, publications, and technical documents subject to EAA obligations. It would also demonstrate Adobe's genuine commitment to the values of inclusivity and accessibility.
The native implementation of these features would eliminate dependency on third-party tools, reduce production costs, and ensure that Adobe InDesign maintains a competitive position aligned with the current European regulatory landscape.
Supporting accessibility is not merely an ethical choice — it is today a concrete responsibility toward the millions of users with disabilities and toward the professionals who produce content for them every day.
Thank you for your attention.