Accessibility Checker Report Conflicts

As Rachit suggested above, the differences could be due to how you and the professor configured your Accessibility Checker settings. Make sure they are the same. We recommend checking everything listed in all 4 sections, except for summaries on tables which is optional per the accessibility standards.

But it also could be due to different versions of Acrobat you both are using. Earlier versions of Acrobat's accessibility checker wouldn't flag some of the issues you describe. We recommend using the latest version of Acrobat Pro in order to be more compliant with the standards.

You might try running the PDF through another accessibility checker, such as:

• PAC3 by Axes for All (free). It examines PDFs more thorougly against the PDF/UA-1 standard. https://support.axes4.com/hc/en-us/articles/201957988-PDF-Accessibility-Checker-PAC- 
• Acrobat's built-in Preflight utility. It too gives more details (and some fixes) for standards compliance. You'll find it in the PDF Standards tool box.
  
  

Quote: << Additionally, he created the textbook in Latex, and many of his text boxes and some of his equations (at least in my report version) are flagged for failed headers or failed figures alternate text. Given that my report is the correct one, how do we even go about fixing these issues? >>

How is the PDF being created from LaTeX? Whenever a PDF is generated from a source document, either a built in software utility or a third-party plug-in/software program is used. These are defined as "PDF Producers" per the ISO 32000 PDF standard and, therefore, they should comply with both the full ISO 32000 standard for all types of PDFs, as well as the ISO 14289 PDF/UA-1 subset standard for accessible PDFs.

You can view what application and producer created the PDF by viewing the PDF's File / Properties / Description tab:

With whatever method you're using, compliance with the standards doesn't appear to be happening. You might need to do one of these steps to create a more compliant, accessible PDF:

• Update the software and PDF Producer.
• Use another vendor's PDF Producer.
• Remediate the PDF into compliance using either Acrobat or another manufacturer's remediation software.

I'm a former LaTeX developer and haven't kept up with it, but it is an extremely powerful publishing platform for STEM material and I run into these problems frequently with government and academic material. It would be an incredible gift to humanity worldwide if we could get better conversions of LaTeX to accessible PDF. I don't think this is on Adobe's to-do list (would be incredible if it was!), and since LaTeX is an opensource environment, the LaTeX community is probably going to have to step up and correct the current deficiencies. And maintain the PDF producer as the standards get updated.

That's a lot to ask of opensource, which is often limited by money, skill levels, and  how much time volunteers have to contribute. Burn-out is very common with opensource environments.

Please get back to us about what you discover. I'm very interested in solutions for this critical topic. I don't mean to exaggerate when I state that this affects humankind worldwide; science, research, and education form the body of knowledge for all societies and LaTeX is right in the middle of that.