Creating Accessible PowerPoints (MS Office 2007) Page 1 of 7

Creating Accessible PowerPoints (MS Office 2007) 1) Open a new file in PowerPoint 2) Select the Home tab at the top left of the screen and click on Layout.

**This step is very important. Any text that you put into your slide using slide layouts will be shown in Outline View. If you delete the textboxes and add your own, your text will not be viewable in the Outline View. Using slide layouts also allows your presentation to be read by text-to-speech assistive technology in a logical reading order. For example, selecting the Two Content slide layout allows a screen reader to read the title first, followed by the left title & text box and then back up to the right title & text box. Outline view allows you to see the order your text will be read by a screen reader.

Creating Accessible PowerPoints (MS Office 2007) Page 2 of 7 3) Insert a new slide, and pick another slide layout depending on your needs. When adding a picture, chart, or diagram, assign an ALT tag to the image describing the visual context that is being conveyed.

4) To add an ALT tag, right-click on the picture and choose the Size and Position option from the drop-down menu.

Creating Accessible PowerPoints (MS Office 2007) Page 3 of 7 5) Choose the Alt Text tab on the top right-hand side of menu. Type what the context of this image is in relation to the lecture. Click Close and the image now has an ALT tag that can be read by screen readers.

9) Save the PowerPoint slideshow in a lower version (PowerPoint 97 – 2003 Presentation) and send it to the student who requires them.

Creative Accessibility Solution When Using the Equation Feature in PowerPoint

Sample for demonstration using Comparison layout:

a) Select Home/New Slide/Comparison

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b) Follow the instructions on the slide example below.

c) Right click on the equation made using the equation feature and choose the Save as Picture option from the drop-down menu.

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d) Save the picture of the equation as something meaningful to the folder of your choice (e.g. Figure 1) and click Save.

e) Going back to the original slide, delete the equation and click on the Insert tab on the top right hand of the screen and choose Picture.

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f) Locate the image of the equation you just saved and insert into your slide in the same location as the previous deleted equation.

g) Finally, go through the previously mentioned steps to insert an ALT tag to the picture. For this example, we typed the literal translation of the equation [e.g. Mean is equal to the sum of all scores (x) divided by the number of scores (N).]

Creating Accessible PowerPoints (MS Office 2007) Page 7 of 7 Accessibility Tips:

1. Keep it simple. 2. Always use slide layouts when setting up your slides. 3. If it is not relevant to course content, get rid of it. 4. Do not use special effects such as custom animation or ‘shadowed’ text (AKA eye candy) as

assistive technology does not interact well with it. 5. Retro-fitting takes longer than developing something accessible in the first place. 6. Keep it simple.

For more in-depth information regarding accessible PowerPoint slides, please contact staff at the Access Resource Centre, 960-5682, Room 10-1048.