ADA compliant tagging issues

[Russ5EF7]

User 1 has this version of Acrobat Pro: 2020.004.30006.

User 2 has version 2022.003.20322.

User 1 is responsible for making all our PDF forms interactive and ADA compliant and User 2 is responsible for checking them before posting them on the Web.

User 2's Acrobat Pro is flagging accessibility failures that User 1

Images below are from user 1 and 2 respectively.  Can you tell us, if User 1 is on the same version as User 2 will that be the fix?  Or why is it that the two versions are not catching the same issues?  See attached

[Ann Bens]

Moving question from Premiere Pro to Acrobat.

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

All of your team must be on the same version of Acrobat Pro, and preferably the most current version . User 1 is now 3 years out of date, and user 1 is one year out of date.

Current version is Mar 2023 (23.001.2006x): See https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/release-note/release-notes-acrobat-reader.html

What's different between the versions? In addition to the obvious changes — like interface design and features — is how well the software the software makes accessible PDFs (via PDF Maker for Office/Windows), checks them for compliance, and repairs them.

The internal Accessibility Checker utility is very different between user 1 and user 2: the utility was updated to correct bugs, fix oversights, and adjust for new interpretations of the PDF/UA-1 standard. And Acrobat will continually change when it's updated. Other accessibility utilities like AutoTag and Preflight are also fixed and improved.

Additionally, PDF Maker (which is a part of the Acrobat family) is updated along with Acrobat itself, so how well a PDF will be tagged when exported from MS Word will change from version to version.

So naturally both team members will get different results throughout the the process.

Bottom line: all members of your accessibility team must be updated to the most current version of Acrobat DC Pro in order to make, review, test, remediate, and validate PDFs for accessibility compliance. Otherwise, everyone will see different results and you'll spend more time and money making compliant PDFs.

—Bevi

Disclaimer: I'm an unpaid volunteer expert here, and I also don't own any Adobe stock. So whether you purchase and/or update Adobe software makes no financial difference to me!

[Russ5EF7]

Thank you, when I go to our Adobe Pro Help > Check for Updates - on their devices I only get "No updates available."  Should I be pulling down versions from another source?

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

You might have a multi-license enterprise version of Acrobat DC Pro. If so, all upgrades/updates go through the management portal with your IT department.

You also might have a "desktop" or "classic" license, which does not give you the option to updates and upgrades.

On the other hand, a subscription-based "continuous release" license gives you all updates/upgrades for free with your paid subscription.

If accessibility is something that your organization must do, then make sure IT has a continuous subscription license because you must be up-to-date with the bug fixes and improvements for accessibility. They're not optional in our line of work.