WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Serious bugs in latest Acrobat update: DO NOT UPDATE

for

From: Elizabeth Thomas
Date: Sep 22, 2021 12:30PM

Aaahhh! That's a disaster! I definitely appreciate the heads up.

Is this update a problem in both the Mac version and the Windows version?

-Elizabeth Thomas
CPACC, ADA

Sent from my iPhone

> On Sep 22, 2021, at 11:56 AM, <EMAIL REMOVED> wrote:
>
> 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
>
> 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 | <EMAIL REMOVED>
> <mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> >
>
> - - -
>
> PubCom: Technologists for Accessible Design + Publishing
>
> consulting . training . development . design . sec. 508 services
>
> Upcoming classes at www.PubCom.com/ <http://www.pubcom.com/classes>; classes
>
> - - -
>
> Latest blog-newsletter
> <https://mailchi.mp/e694edcdfadd/class-discount-3266574> - Simple Guide to
> Writing Alt-Text
> <https://www.pubcom.com/blog/2020_07-20/alt-text_part-1.shtml>
>
>
>
>