The Incredible, Inclusive PowerPoint

How to make your PowerPoint lessons more accessible

Dixie M Davis

March 20, 2008

DENNEN/EME6415/SPR08

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Intended Audience

The intended audience for this program are instructional design students enrolled in a courseware development and design course, such as EME6415.

The audience could be extended to include any individuals who wish to create accessible presentations and learning modules using PowerPoint.

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Learner Objectives

Learners will recognize PowerPoint features that provide accommodations to visually impaired and deaf individuals.

Learners will correctly list PowerPoint features that do not accommodate visual and auditory disabilities.

Learners will correctly identify formatting and content strategies for creating accessible PowerPoint presentations for visually impaired and deaf individuals.

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The Golden Rule of Accessibility

Remember the Golden Rule of Accessibility? – If a piece of information could be inaccessible to someone, always convey that information in a second format.

Remember me from the last lesson? I’m Rosa, the blind bookworm. We’re moving on from the web now to other digital media.

If you have audio in a presentation, you should provide that same information as text.

This rule also applies to visual images.

Source: http://office.microsoft.com/training/Training.aspx?AssetID=RC063800961033&CTT=6&Origin=RC063800961033.

Image credit: http://www.panix.com/~kestrell/bookworm5.gif

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A picture is worth how many words?

According to Census information from the year 2000, over 9.3 million people have a disability involving sight or hearing.

Blind and partially sighted individuals rely on assistive technology, such as screen readers, that provide text alternatives to visual images.Source: http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/001823.html

Image credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_scream

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A picture is worth how many words?

This alternative text is called descriptive text.

An example for this image would be: This slide shows an image of Edward Munch’s painting, The Scream. It is an image of a person on a dock with their hands to their face. The person looks like he or she is screaming.

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Module Objectives

In the last lesson you learned about Section 508 and how it applies to the web, let’s look at how it applies to other electronic media.

In this module, we will learn which features in PowerPoint accommodate individuals with disabilities and which features we should avoid.

We will also discover strategies for formatting our slides and for creating content that ensures our PowerPoint presentations and modules are as inclusive as possible.

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Accessible or Inaccessible –Your Choice

Click the checkmark to learn about PowerPoint’s accessible features.

Click the exclamation point to learn about PowerPoint features that will hinder efforts to create inclusive media.

Accessible Features

Though PowerPoint is not as accessible as HTML, there are options you can choose to increase its range as a delivery medium.

These features apply mainly to the blind and partially sighted.

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Accessible Features – Auto Layouts Using Auto Layouts help

ensure screen readers will pick up all the text in your presentation or module.

If text is not within one of the PowerPoint provided layouts, screen readers do not have access to it.

Avoid copying and pasting text into slides because odd formatting can be introduced that may trip up the screen reader.

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Accessible Features - Normal View

Develop your module or presentation in Normal View to ensure your information is accessible.

Type directly into the Slides Pane.

The Outline Pane shows just the text information in your slides.

Use the Notes Pane to add descriptive text about any graphics.

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Accessible Features – Animations

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Animations that work with the direction of reading are OK.

Examples include Appear. And, Wipe Down. Do you think this one (Spin) works? No – it does not follow the direction of

reading.

Features to Avoid

Some features in PowerPoint are not accessible to screen readers, or are only available to some.

If your goal is to provide equal access to your information, you should avoid including these features in your modules or presentations.

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Features to Avoid – Action Buttons That’s right, Navigational

Buttons, Hyperlinks, etc. are not available to all screen readers.

Mouse-overs and screen tips are also not reliably accessible.

Alternative formats should be offered if these are part of your module or presentation.

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Alternative Format?

What is an alternative format for a Navigation Button?

Another way to present the information would be to provide the module as a slideshow which allows the learner to adjust the amount of time each slide is visible.

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Features to Avoid – MSOffice objects Charts, Forms, Graphs and Tables created

with Microsoft Office are also not available to all screen readers.

Alternative formats should be offered if these are part of your module or presentation.

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Features to Avoid – Animations Animations that move quickly and do not

follow the direction of reading should be avoided.

Examples: include blinds; Dissolve, stretch, and checkerboard. What about zoom? It also should be avoided.

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PowerPoint Features

Great! That wraps up our section on exploring PowerPoint’s accessibility positives and negatives.

Some argue because PowerPoint is not completely accessible, you should always provide an HTML alternative. We’ll talk more about that in the next lesson.

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UX DOW-PIRM

DRI-POW MUX

RUP WIMD-ORX

WORD MIX-UP

Start Game

VPIRECSDIET

The type of text used as an alternative format for images.

Click on the Scrabble

letters to see

the answer.

VPIRECSDIET

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT

is the type of text used as an alternative format for images.

Got it right? – Excellent! No, See Slide 6 for review.

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TYA STALUOOU

An accessible PowerPoint feature that helps ensure screen readers pick up all text in your module or presentation.

Click on the Scrabble

letters to see

the answer.

TYA STALUOOU

AUTO LAYOUTS

an accessible feature in PowerPoint that helps ensure all text is available to screen readers.

Got it right? – Excellent! No, See Slide 10 for review.

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