Do you wish you could turn off the Generative AI Alt-text generator before it harms your document? Try this startup script that blocks it from ever starting.
As a startup script, each time you start InDesign, it turns off the two Alt-Text preference switches so that when you open a publication file, the Generative AI will not try to write descriptions for you. Since it runs at startup, even if a new version or patch of InDesign starts, it will still turn off the preferences. This is better than risking the feature altering your careful editorial work. Now, InDesign will not examine your graphics in the cloud and return faulty Alt-Text descriptions for you, and it will not consume account credits for this Generative AI feature.
If you also do not want to see the large Alt-Text frame adornment icons in the lower-left side of the graphics frame, go to View menu > Extras > Hide Alt-Text Badge.
Install this script n the User’s Startup Scripts Folder
The folder might need to be created if you don't already have one. This is where the Startup Scripts folder is located:
Windows: C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\InDesign\Version 21.0\en_US\Scripts\Startup Scripts
macOS: Users/UserName/Library/Preferences/Adobe InDesign/Version 21.0/en_US/Scripts/Startup Scripts
This is the JavaScript code
Copy the below text into a plain-text editor and save and name it Disable-Generative-AI-Alt-Text-Preference.jsx: Put the script file into the Startup Scripts folder. Restart InDesign. The Generative AI feature will be prevented from operating.
try {
app.generalPreferences.autoGenerateAltText = false;
app.generalPreferences.addAITagToAltText = false;
} catch (e) {
// Silently ignore errors.
}
But what if Generative AI already went through your document and wrote descriptions? Or what if you routinely need to apply intelligent and appropriate Alt-Text descriptions to graphics so that your exported PDFs and EPUBs are more accessible? While InDesign provides this feature under the Object menu > Object Export Options, it does not automate it; nor does it provide a keyboard shortcut that can open to the correct place in the dialog box. Without a script, this stage of the work is slow and tediously click-intensive. Find the Accessibility Alt-Text Assistant script along with its similar companion, the Accessibility Alt-Text Reviewer script under our InDesign Resources page. These scripts allow you to automate going through all your graphics while you use Actual Human Intelligence™ to write meaningful Alt-Text accessibility descriptions.
