[ATcoord] [EXTERNAL] - Fw: [ITACCESS] Fwd: [WebAIM] Serious bugs in latest Acrobat update: DO NOT UPDATE

Hayman, Douglass dhayman at olympic.edu
Wed Sep 22 13:53:06 PDT 2021 

Monica and others,

I was asked to look into a Word doc with 45 tables yesterday that upon conversion to PDF was reporting problems with headings in the accessibility checker.  After seeing if she and I had made a mistake I fortunately stumbled upon the early parts of that thread.

On looking again today to see what more Bevi wrote (she's top in the PDF accessibility realm and sits on the International standards group), she suggested steps to take to artifact the first <P> tag with a bunch of pathpathpath crap that is tripping up the accessibility checker.  Her steps didn't work for me and I made this short video to share with her.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r60YLC6au0Q

Turns out there is visibly a <P> tag in the tags tree but underneath it is sort of artifacted.  On changing it to a Paragaph in properties one can then, really artifact it and the delete the empty <P> tag.

Unfortunately I believe they've added other such crap in the rest of each table's tag structure and I just messaged Bevi about that.  It appears that they are taking what was once left out of the tags altogether, those elements that show cell border color, size, bands and whatever and added those back to the tags tree for a table when they should all be artifacts.

See this screenshot too.  You'll see the Path highlighted in the tags tree and that cell border highlighted in the table while showing a <P> tag AND showing Artifact in properties.  It shouldn't be both.  It should either be a Paragraph OR and Artifact.

Doug Hayman
IT Accessibility Coordinator
Information Technology
Olympic College
dhayman at olympic.edu<mailto:dhayman at olympic.edu>
(360) 475-7632 (currently working remotely and don't have access to this phone)



From: ATcoord <atcoord-bounces at lists.ctc.edu> On Behalf Of Monica Olsson via ATcoord
Sent: Wednesday, September 22, 2021 1:40 PM
To: atcoord at lists.ctc.edu; accessibleit at uw.edu
Cc: Monica Olsson <molsson at sbctc.edu>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] - [ATcoord] Fw: [ITACCESS] Fwd: [WebAIM] Serious bugs in latest Acrobat update: DO NOT UPDATE

CAUTION: This email came from a non-OC system or external source. Beware of phishing and social engineering!

Forwarding this conversation for those working with Adobe and interesed.




[Title: SBCTC logo - Description: Compass]Monica M. Olsson (she/her/hers)

Policy Associate - Accessible IT Coordinator

Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges

molsson at sbctc.edu<mailto:molsson at sbctc.edu> * o: 360-704-3922 * c: 206-914-7187

sbctc.edu<https://www.sbctc.edu/> * Twitter: @SBCTCWashington<https://twitter.com/SBCTCWashington> * Facebook: @WASBCTC<https://www.facebook.com/wasbctc/>

________________________________
From: The EDUCAUSE IT Accessibility Community Group Listserv <ITACCESS at LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU<mailto:ITACCESS at LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU>> on behalf of Ortiz, Tracie R. <tortiz at ODU.EDU<mailto:tortiz at ODU.EDU>>
Sent: Wednesday, September 22, 2021 12:30 PM
To: ITACCESS at LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU<mailto:ITACCESS at LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU> <ITACCESS at LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU<mailto:ITACCESS at LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU>>
Subject: Re: [ITACCESS] Fwd: [WebAIM] Serious bugs in latest Acrobat update: DO NOT UPDATE

I will definitely contribute my frustrations to Adobe. We had the same issues here at ODU and I'm glad to see we're not alone.

Thank you for starting this!

Tracie

Tracie Ortiz, Ph.D.
Instructional Designer
Center for Learning and Teaching
Gornto Hall, #131
Old Dominion University
tortiz at odu.edu<mailto:tortiz at odu.edu>
757-683-3222
________________________________
From: The EDUCAUSE IT Accessibility Community Group Listserv <ITACCESS at LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU<mailto:ITACCESS at LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU>> on behalf of Krista Greear <krista at INCLUSIVEINSTRUCTIONALDESIGN.COM<mailto:krista at INCLUSIVEINSTRUCTIONALDESIGN.COM>>
Sent: Wednesday, September 22, 2021 3:24 PM
To: ITACCESS at LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU<mailto:ITACCESS at LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU> <ITACCESS at LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU<mailto:ITACCESS at LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU>>
Subject: [ITACCESS] Fwd: [WebAIM] Serious bugs in latest Acrobat update: DO NOT UPDATE


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Important - please read thread below and vote for fixing so Adobe sees our frustration at https://acrobat.uservoice.com/forums/590923-acrobat-for-windows-and-mac/sugg<https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Facrobat.uservoice.com%2Fforums%2F590923-acrobat-for-windows-and-mac%2Fsuggestions%2F44183082-accessibility-errors-with-pdf-maker-update-sept-20&data=04%7C01%7CTortiz%40ODU.EDU%7Cb156bc2dc7414a38e30f08d97dfe98f7%7C48bf86e811a24b8a8cb368d8be2227f3%7C0%7C1%7C637679354711245613%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=zQg276NLVhN4NX4FwSbr%2B40fZIg5kQvMUYr%2BTDkURp8%3D&reserved=0>
estions/44183082-accessibility-errors-with-pdf-maker-update-sept-20<https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Facrobat.uservoice.com%2Fforums%2F590923-acrobat-for-windows-and-mac%2Fsuggestions%2F44183082-accessibility-errors-with-pdf-maker-update-sept-20&data=04%7C01%7CTortiz%40ODU.EDU%7Cb156bc2dc7414a38e30f08d97dfe98f7%7C48bf86e811a24b8a8cb368d8be2227f3%7C0%7C1%7C637679354711255604%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=NkRNosfITQoaePVt2bi6t7BA5YPFFnB8PxAx39sEjYA%3D&reserved=0>.

Krista

Krista Greear
Accessibility and Inclusivity Crusader
ATHEN Executive Council Vice President
Access Technology Higher Education Network<https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fathenpro.org%2F&data=04%7C01%7CTortiz%40ODU.EDU%7Cb156bc2dc7414a38e30f08d97dfe98f7%7C48bf86e811a24b8a8cb368d8be2227f3%7C0%7C1%7C637679354711255604%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=I1O9a2raIBFIAK2pYx7Kb%2FXsowI%2FlgFvJ4dpaTlmvDg%3D&reserved=0>

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: <chagnon at pubcom.com<mailto:chagnon at pubcom.com>>
Date: Wed, Sep 22, 2021 at 11:57 AM
Subject: [WebAIM] Serious bugs in latest Acrobat update: DO NOT UPDATE
To: WebAIM Discussion List <webaim-forum at list.webaim.org<mailto:webaim-forum at list.webaim.org>>


Last week, Adobe updated Acrobat and with it, the PDF Maker plug-in for MS
Office that is used to export PDFs from Word and other office apps on
Windows.

Several key bugs in PDF Maker have shown up since, namely:

*       Alt-text added in Word is dropped in the exported PDF and replaced
with code gibberish. (Yes, all the Alt-text you worked hard on is gone!)

*       Every frigging line, border, and background fill on table cells,
text boxes, paragraph borders, and hyperlinks is tagged in the Tag Tree with
<P>PathPathPathPathPathPath.one "path" for each border on each cell in a
table.

*       And there's no way to roll back to the previous version of Acrobat
and recover your tools. Once updated, you are S O L.

Three actions to take:

1.       Vote to fix these bugs on Adobe's UserVoice website.
If you can, please also add a comment about how accessibility is required
for you and your organization by your country's and state's laws. (Adobe's
staff don't understand these laws about civil rights and equal access to
information.) We need a few hundred votes on this page for Adobe to pay
attention to the problem, so spread this message to your colleagues.
The website is at
https://acrobat.uservoice.com/forums/590923-acrobat-for-windows-and-mac/sugg
estions/44183082-accessibility-errors-with-pdf-maker-update-sept-20<https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Facrobat.uservoice.com%2Fforums%2F590923-acrobat-for-windows-and-mac%2Fsuggestions%2F44183082-accessibility-errors-with-pdf-maker-update-sept-20&data=04%7C01%7CTortiz%40ODU.EDU%7Cb156bc2dc7414a38e30f08d97dfe98f7%7C48bf86e811a24b8a8cb368d8be2227f3%7C0%7C1%7C637679354711265598%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=GY%2FcSBIhTiWGxlCXWd5ptiMSbap58KG9EUz%2BnJ5Ymfw%3D&reserved=0>

2.       Until this is fixed, use Microsoft's built-in utility to export
accessible tagged PDFs, and skip the Acrobat Ribbon (which is the Adobe PDF
Maker plug-in) altogether. I'll have a blog / tutorial on this by the
weekend, but in the meantime, here are the quick instructions:

a.       Make an accessible Word document as usual, with styles, Alt-text,
etc.

b.       File / Save As / and then choose PDF in the File Type field. This
triggers Microsoft's built-in export utility, not Adobe's.

c.       Set your options, file location, and file name.

3.       And don't upgrade to the latest version of Acrobat. The version
that is buggy (well, more than usual) is 2021.007.XXXX, and the versions of
PDF Maker that are installed with it are PDF Maker 21 Library 21.7.123 and
Library 21.7.112.



- - -

Bevi Chagnon  | Designer, Accessibility Technician |  Chagnon at PubCom.com<mailto:Chagnon at PubCom.com>
<mailto:Chagnon at PubCom.com<mailto:Chagnon at PubCom.com>>

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PubCom: Technologists for Accessible Design + Publishing

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