Creating Accessible PowerPoint Presentations

Peter Mosinskis

Supervisor of Web Services

CSU Channel Islands

Rev. 2008-11-14

Speaker Notes:

---

Overview

• Why Accessible?

• Hands-On

  • 8 Steps for PowerPoint Accessibility

  • LK4 Wizard and LecShare Pro

Speaker Notes:

---

Why Make Information Accessible?

• “Access for all”

• Forward-thinking

• Scalable

• Manage Risk

Speaker Notes:

---

8 Steps

Simple = Easy

Speaker Notes:

---

Eight Steps to Accessibility

1. Create text descriptions for photos and diagrams

2. Use color correctly

3. Use Slide Layout for slide structure

4. Use appropriate font formatting

5. Make tables and diagrams accessible

6. Address multimedia, video and audio issues

7. Add document metadata

8. Provide in both PPT and HTML formats

Speaker Notes:

---

1. Text Description of Images

• Text description of meaningful non-text elements (such as images or diagrams)

  • Right-click on an object/image

  • Choose “Format Picture”

  • Choose “Web” tab

  • Enter text description

  • Click “OK”

Speaker Notes:

---

How would you describe this?
Example Figure 1

Speaker Notes:

---

Tips

• Determine if purely decorative or meaningful/descriptive…

• First ask “who should describe this?”

  • Are you qualified to come up with a description?

  • If not, contact the originator of the information to provide a written description.

• Short description

  • “G-protein coupled receptor”

• Long Description

  • “The GPCR is pictured here spanning a cell membrane and binding a neurotransmitter molecule.”

• Finally ask, “is this good enough for the intended audience?”

Speaker Notes:

---

How would you describe this?
Example Figure 2

Speaker Notes:

---

Tips

• Determine if purely decorative or meaningful/descriptive…

• Ask “Who should describe this?”

• Write a Short Description

  • “Diagram of the conversion from embryo to stem cell”

• Write Long Description

  • Should at least contain all of the text in the chart

  • Should go in body text, before or directly after the diagram

• Ask, “is this good enough for the intended audience?”, if not, revise it.

Speaker Notes:

---

How to Describe Things

• How to Create Descriptive Text

• Describing Fine Art

• Describing Things You Hear

Speaker Notes:

---

2. Use color correctly

• Examine two color issues

  • Color words

  • Color contrast

Speaker Notes:

---

Color Issue #1 – Color Words

• Never depend on color alone to convey your content: search for color words and replace them with text or text symbols

• WRONG:

  • “See the red section for additional information”

• CORRECT:

  • “See the section titled ‘More Info’ for additional information”

Speaker Notes:

---

Color Issue #2 - Color Contrast

• Best practice for color contrast:
  black text on white or 10% grey background

• This is the example!

  • The text has good color contrast with the background

  • It is easy to read the text

Speaker Notes:

---

Poor Color Contrast

• Here is a slide which shows text

• The text has poor color contrast with the background

• It is difficult to read the text

• Further, light-colored text does not export well using the Virtual508 Wizard

Speaker Notes:

---

Testing Color Contrast

• TPG Colour Contrast Analyzer

  • Free download:

  • Windows + Mac

• Compare background and foreground colors

  • Minimum: meets both WCAG “AA” checks

  • Recommended: meets “AA” and “AAA” checks

Speaker Notes:

---

Fixing Color Contrast

• Change font color:

  • Highlight text

  • Click on the “Font Color” icon

  • Choose “Automatic”

Speaker Notes:

---

Fixing Color Contrast (cont.)

• Change background using Slide Designs!

  • Format menu >
    Slide Design…

  • Choose a design

  • Choose “Apply to All Slides” or “Apply to Selected Slides”

  • Choose one that has good color contrast!

Speaker Notes:

---

3. Use Slide Layouts

• Default slide layouts are available for the most common slide types

• Examples:

  • Title slide

  • Title and text (usually bullets)

  • Title and 2-column text

Speaker Notes:

---

Use Slide Layouts (cont.)

• Will maintain correct bullets and numbering

• Easy to change layout of a given slide

• Easy to modify globally

  • View menu > Master > Slide Master

Speaker Notes:

---

4. Use Appropriate Font Formatting

• Quick Fix:

  • Format >
    Slide Layout…

  • Click the dropdown menu for a layout

  • Choose
    “Reapply Layout”

Speaker Notes:

---

Use Appropriate Font Formatting

• Font sizes should be 20 point or larger

• Use standard typefaces

  • Arial/Helvetica (basic sans serif)

  • Times/Times New Roman (basic serif)

• Avoid “script” or fantasy typefaces

• Use no more than 2 font families per document

Speaker Notes:

---

Use Appropriate Font Formatting

• Use bold and italic styles judiciously

  • Rule of thumb: no more than 2 sentences in a row in any paragraph

• Avoid using “underline” text altogether

  • Too easily confused with links

Speaker Notes:

---

5. Table Best Practices

• Use tables, not tabs for grid-like data

• Use row and column headings

• Develop a brief summary of the table

  • Equivalent to short text descriptions of images

Speaker Notes:

---

Diagrams

• Write out a complete description of the diagram

• Include the description in the Slide Notes section

Speaker Notes:

---

Diagram Example

• The Slide Notes section is shown below

• It appears below each slide

• Add notes to describe your diagram in sufficient detail

Speaker Notes:

---

6. Multimedia, Animations, Flash

• Avoid text/graphics that move

• If required, allow user to initiate movement (e.g., play an animation)

• Avoid text/graphics that blink or flash

  • May cause seizures in some people

Speaker Notes:

---

Video Clips

• Embedded video clips must be captioned

• Provide an electronic transcript along with the video file

• Best practices:

  • Do not embed video

  • Use a local or a web link to link to the captioned video file

  • Provide a link to the viewer for the video file type

Speaker Notes:

---

Audio Clips

• Determine whether an audio clip is:

  • Purely decorative OR

  • Meaningful/descriptive

• Meaningful/descriptive audio clips must include a transcript

Speaker Notes:

---

7. Add document metadata

• Go to File menu

• Choose Properties…

• Enter in a descriptive, accurate title (most important)

• Add other metadata as desired

• Click OK

• Save your document

Speaker Notes:

---

Prompt for File Properties

• Go to “Tools” menu

• Choose “Options”

• Go to “Save” tab

• Check “Prompt for file properties” checkbox

• Do this for every Office application (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)

  • Excel: “General” tab, “Prompt for Workbook Properties”

  • Word: Save tab, “Prompt for Document Properties”

Speaker Notes:

---

8. Deliver in 2 Formats

“As-is” PowerPoint + HTML

Speaker Notes:

---

“As-is” PowerPoint
Pros & Cons

• Pros

  • Familiar interface and tools

  • No modifications from original file

  • Can search entire PPT for information easily

  • Fairly accessible when done correctly

• Cons

  • Requires users to install full version PowerPoint on their computer; free PowerPoint Reader is not accessible

  • MS PowerPoint/Office is not cheap/free

  • Not everyone has MS PowerPoint/Office version

  • Can’t automate compliance checks

Speaker Notes:

---

HTML Pros & Cons

• Pros

  • Can view with web browser

  • Best support of assistive technology

  • Most accessible solution when done correctly

  • Can partially automate compliance checking

  • Tools are available to help with HTML generation (LecShare, Virtual508 Wizard)

• Cons

  • Can’t easily search entire presentation

  • Requires working knowledge of HTML or HTML editing software

Speaker Notes:

---

Accessibility Spectrum

“As-is”
PPT + HTML

HTML

“As-is” PPT

MORE ACCESSIBLE

Speaker Notes:

---

Best Strategy

• Provide files in both HTML and “as-is” especially when building content for web sites

• If only one format possible, provide as HTML

Speaker Notes:

---

Tools

To help with Step #8

Speaker Notes:

---

PowerPoint Tools

• LK4 Virtual508 Wizard

• LecShare Pro

Speaker Notes:

---

LK4 Virtual 508 Wizard

• Formerly “UIUC PowerPoint Wizard”

• Plug-in for MS PowerPoint/MS Office

• Affordably priced (~$40/copy)

  • IT has some free copies available (~20)

• Windows only!

Speaker Notes:

---

LecShare Pro

• www.lecshare.com/

• Standalone application, requires PowerPoint

• CSUCI has a campus-wide license, i.e., all employees and students can use

• Windows and Mac

Speaker Notes:

---

How Tools Will Help

• Both tools will

  • Check descriptions of images & charts

  • Add descriptions to images

  • Add metadata to the document

  • Convert to HTML & maintain slide layout

Speaker Notes:

---

Differences between PPT Tools

• LK4 Wizard will

  • Provide multiple HTML output options

  • Create printable handouts

• LecShare will

  • Help make tables & charts accessible

  • Provide multiple other output options (Quicktime, etc)

  • Enable presenter to record slide narration and add captions

Speaker Notes:

---

Tools will NOT help

• Ensure image descriptions are meaningful/sufficient

• Semantic/markup problems

• Solve color problems

• Create accessible audio/video

Speaker Notes:

---

Known Issues & Alternatives

• Mac PowerPoint

  • Cannot add text descriptions to images/diagrams

• Created on a Mac?

  • Export as HTML using LecShare

Speaker Notes:

---

Either Way…

Complex = difficult to make accessible

Speaker Notes:

---

Summary

• Some manual evaluation/repair is always required

• Tools can help automate some tasks

• Simple = easy = good

• Keep users in mind

Speaker Notes:

---

Other Related Workshops

• Creating Accessible Word documents

• Creating Accessible PDFs I

• Creating Accessible PDF II (Forms)

• Web Accessibility I & II

Speaker Notes:

---

Resources

• CSUCI Web Accessibility –

• Georgia Tech Access E-Learning modules:

• Section508.gov –

• WebAIM –

• CATS Listserv – subscribe at

Speaker Notes:

---

Questions

Contact the Help Desk

805-437-8552

Speaker Notes: