Accessible Technology

Creating Accessible PowerPoint Presentations

 

Hierarchical Formatting

Tip: Use hierarchical formatting to clarify the relationship among ideas.

Creating Hierarchical Formatting

Rationale for Creating Hierarchical Formatting

Creating Hierarchical Formatting

Most PowerPoint layouts, by default, provide automatic bulleting which facilitates creating hierarchical relationships among ideas. Use the bulleted and numbering list options in the Paragraph group on the Home ribbon to adjust the format of your lists.

Creating Hierarchical Formatting 

Rationale for Creating Hierarchical Formatting

Hierarchical formatting makes it easier for everyone to discern main topics from subtopics, etc.

Below are images of two slides. The first has no hierarchical formatting; the second uses bullets to express relationships among the topics.

Description: PowerPoint slide without hierarchical formatting 

Description: PowerPoint slide with hierarchical formatting using bullets and indenting 

Outline View

Tip: Be sure all of the text content from all the slides appears in the Outline view with the correct hierarchy of slide titles, topics, and subtopics.

View a Presentation in Outline View

Rationale for Viewing Presentations in Outline View

View a Presentation in Outline View.

Open the View menu, and choose Outline view from the Presentation Views group.

View a Presentation in Outline View 

Rationale for Viewing Presentations in Outline View

It is important to ensure that all text gets included in the Outline View for the following reasons.

  • Some students with visual disabilities prefer reading the text in the outline view.

  • The outline view provides everyone an overview of the text content.

  • When a student requires the PowerPoint content to be provided in another format (e.g., Word), the most efficient conversion starts with copying the text from the Outline view.

  • Reviewing the Outline panel can help ensure the content on the slides is logically sequenced, slide titles are unique and meaningful, and reading order is appropriate.

Slide Layouts

Tip: Use one of the slide layouts provided by PowerPoint.

Using Slide Layouts to Structure Slides

Rationale for Using Slide Layouts to Structure Slides

Using Slide Layouts to Structure Slides

Click the Layout button on the Home ribbon, and then choose one of the Layout slide options.

Using Slide Layouts to Structure Slides 

Rationale for Using PowerPoints Slide Layouts

Using one of the layouts provided by PowerPoint results in well-structured slides with hierarchical headings and subtopics. People using software to hear the slides will hear the content in the correct reading order. Additionally, all the text will be available in the Outline view.

Special Note

Resizing the boxes provided through the Layout options does not diminish the advantages of using those layout options versus text boxes.

Text Boxes

Tip: Do not use text boxes.

Rationale for Not Using Text Boxes

Rationale for Not Using Text Boxes

Text inserted into boxes created by choosing Text Box from the Insert menu, does not appear in the Outline and is likely to disturb the reading order of slides for people who are listening to the slides with screen reading or text-to-speech software.

Rationale for Not Using Text Boxes 

Images

Tip: Provide a text equivalent (i.e. alt text) for all images.

Process for Providing Images with Text Equivalents.

Rationale for Text Equivalents and Examples

Process for Providing Images with Text Equivalents

Alt Text

The following directions cover adding alt text in PowerPoint 2013.

Special Note

Adding alt text varies a bit with different versions of PowerPoint. Do not hesitate to contact any one of our SMC accessibility people resources (LINK to Resources) if you have questions.

  1. Right click the image, and choose Format Picture from the context menu.

    Format Picture 

  2. From the Format Picture options, choose the Layout and Properties button.

    Layout and Properties 

  3. Enter the alt text in the Description edit box.

Longer Descriptions

For complex images conveying instructional content (e.g., charts, graphs, paintings for art history courses), alt text does not suffice. In these cases, add alt text to the image and provide a longer description within the PowerPoint slide or an adjacent slide. The text of the longer description should reflect what professors want students to know.

Special Note

Occasionally, professors cannot provide longer descriptions because explaining the image is the assignment. Under these circumstances, appropriate accommodations are developed collaboratively among students, professors, DSPS faculty/staff and others, as appropriate.

Below is an image of a chart with examples of alt text as well as a longer description.

Alt text

  • National Defense Outlays for Major Public Direct Physical Capital Investment: 1940-2013

Longer description:

  • This chart on United States military spending shows a drop immediately after World War II with higher spending restarting during the Korean War. It shows spending on nuclear-related items begins in 1947. An additional related expense beginning in 1956 was housing for military families.

Special Note

If a blind student needed access to all the specific numbers in the chart below, an additional accommodation would be necessary (e.g., re-creating the chart in an Excel spreadsheet).

Description: National Defense Outlays for Major Public Direct Physical Capital Investment: 1940-2013 

Purely Decorative Images with No Communicative Purpose

Ideally, each image we incorporate into our web pages will have a meaning we want to communicate to our students, colleagues, etc. Should you for some reason, add an image with absolutely no communicative value, omit the alt text.

Rationale for Image Descriptions and Examples

People who are severely visually impaired cannot see images; therefore, each image needs a text equivalent the visually impaired individual can hear using screen reading software and/or feel using a refreshable Braille display. All images need alternative (alt) text. Thoughtful alt text provides a succinct (no more than about 100 characters) description of the image’s function, and reflects the context in which the image has been placed. Complex images requiring more than 100 characters to communicate their importance also need longer descriptions, ideally provided within the PowerPoint slide or an adjacent slide. Fortunately, any alt text you provide for PowerPoint images will also be available if you save your PowerPoint file as a PDF file.

Examples of Alt Text and Their Context

Alt Text Example: Schnauzer Puppy 

Context: Personal web page

Sample Alt Text: My four month old Schnauzer puppy, Max

Alt Text Example: Screaming Duck 

Context: Web page for popular culture course unit discussing modifications of classic art

Sample Alt Text: cartoon of screaming duck, a parody of the Munch painting

Tip: Create link text that contains the link’s destination.

Rationale

Accessible and Inaccessible Examples

Additional Resources on Links

Rationale

Creating link text that makes sense out of context is important because screen reader users can listen to a list of all links extracted from a PowerPoint slide and navigate within that list by first letter.  Listening to a list with items like “Click here” or “More” is not helpful.

Accessible and Inaccessible Examples

Unclear Link Text

Click here to go to the Getty Museum.

Click here to go to the Getty Museum.

Read More…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sJ1R58pQTs

Usable Link Text

Getty Museum

Click here to go to the Getty Museum.

Additional Resources on Link Text

Link Text from Penn State Accessibility

Unique Titles

Tip: Give each slide a unique title.

Rationale for Giving Each Slide a Unique Title

Rationale for Giving Each Slide a Unique Title

Giving each slide a unique name eliminates any confusion about slide order. If you have more than one slide on the same topic, number the slides, e.g., Effects of Global Warming 1, Effects of Global Warming 2.

Color

Tip: Never use color alone to communicate.

Rationale for Not Using Color Alone to Communicate.

Use of Color Examples

Color Blindness Simulators

Rationale for Not Using Color Alone to Communicate Information

People who are color blind or severely visually impaired cannot discriminate on the basis of color.

Use of Color Examples

Inaccessible Use of Color

The new vocabulary words are listed below. The words in red will definitely be on the test.
1. diffident
2. homeostatis
3. diabesis
4. prolix
5. sagacious

All homework is due before the exam.

Accessible Use of Color

The new vocabulary words are listed below. “Diffident” and “prolix” will definitely be on the test.

1. diffident
2. homeostatis
3. diabesis
4. prolix
5. sagacious

All homework is due before the exam. In this example. bold and underline are used in addition to color to make the word "before" stand out.)

Color Blindness Simulators

Color Blindness Vision Simulator

Contrast

Tip: Use good contrast.

Rationale

Examples

Color Contrast Standard

Color Contrast Analyzer Tools

Additional Color Contrast Resources

Rationale

Good contrast is mission critical for many people who are visually impaired and simply good design for everyone.

Examples

Good Contrast

Questionable Contrast

Poor Contrast

Color Contrast Standard

SMC must comply with the web accessibility design standards (Link this to the Standards section within the web section) in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, Conformance Level AA. These standards require a contrast ratio between foreground text and background of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text (14 point and bold or larger, or 18 point or larger).

In general, if you are questioning whether contrast is sufficient, assume it is not. To confirm whether a contrast ratio complies with our standards, use a color contrast analyzer tool.

Color Contrast Analyzer Tools

Additional Color Contrast Resources

Color and Contrast on Web Pages

Text Size

Tip: Use sufficient text size.

Rationale for Using Sufficient Text Size

Rationale for Using Sufficient Text Size

Small fonts make viewing presentations difficult for everyone especially for most people who are partially sighted. David Paradis of Think Outside the Slide provides a chart showing the “maximum distance from the screen that an audience member should be seated in order to be able to easily read a given text size.”

Automatic Slide Transitions

Tip: Avoid automatic slide transitions.

Rational for Not Using Automatic Slide Transitions

Rationale for Not Using Automatic Slide Transitions

Automatic slide transitions preclude each person’s opportunity to spend as much time with a slide as needed.

Captioning

Tip: Ensure that all videos embedded in your slides or linked to from your slides are captioned, and provide transcripts for all audio files.

Rationale for Captioning

Support for Captioning

Rationale for Captioning

All multimedia must be captioned, and all audio files need to be accompanied by a transcript to accommodate people who are deaf/hard-of-hearing.

  • If you have a deaf/hard-of-hearing student in your class and your chosen multimedia is not captioned, this multimedia cannot be shown or assigned.

  • If you have a deaf/hard-of-hearing student in your class and your online multimedia is not captioned, your links to that multimedia need to be inactive until the captioning is completed.

  • Here is the only exception: No students in your class need captioning as an accommodation and the multimedia will be used for the current class ONLY (e.g., YouTube video on a current event), not in a subsequent semester.

Support for Captioning

Christine Miller, Distance Education Multimedia Specialist, x3765

Contact Christine for all questions related to captioning with CANVAS.

Elena Throckmorton, Disabled Student Services, x4267

Contact Elena for all captioning questions not related to CANVAS.

Additional Resources on Creating Accessible PowerPoint Presentations