PowerPoint Accessibility

Introduction to PowerPoint Accessibility

Microsoft PowerPoint is one of the most popular tools for creating slide show presentations. It is a popular way to organize thoughts for a meeting or lesson, to attractively present key points in a live presentation, and even to create handouts. Even though PowerPoint files are normally used in live presentations, they are extremely common on the web. For example, teachers may use them to organize lesson plans, or online conference proceedings might link to the files used during keynotes and workshops.

Unfortunately, PowerPoint files are not as accessible as HTML. Although there are ways to improve the accessibility of PowerPoint files, the only way to ensure that a PowerPoint presentation is truly accessible is to create an HTML alternative instead of or in addition to the PowerPoint file. This is due mainly to the needs of people who use screen readers.

Most people with other needs or disabilities will probably be able to access the original PowerPoint, assuming they have the correct program or plug-in. Those who are deaf will be able to access the slides without any problems, unless there is embedded multimedia. In such cases, captions and/or transcripts will be necessary. Those with motor disabilities will have no special difficulties. Even those who cannot use a mouse will be fine, since the slides are keyboard-accessible. Those with cognitive disabilities will not have any particular difficulties, at least not with an engaging, clear PowerPoint presentation.

There are three main ways to deploy a slide show presentation on the web:

1. Post the original PowerPoint (PPT) file
2. Convert the original file to HTML and provide this in addition to or instead of the PowerPoint file
3. Create an original slide show in HTML

Each of these methods will be covered within this chapter.

Post the Original File

There's nothing wrong with posting PowerPoint presentations on the web in their original format. However, you must ALSO post an HTML-based version to ensure maximum accessibility.

People who use screen readers will need to have the slides in HTML format in order to access them. This is the only format that can be considered reliably accessible to the various brands of screen readers on the market. Some screen readers can read PowerPoint slides on the web to some degree, but not well enough to be considered truly "accessible."

When you post the original file (e.g. myslideshow.ppt) to the web, the user can view the slides directly from within a browser if the user has the PowerPoint Viewer plug-in installed. Recent editions of Internet Explorer come with this plug-in already installed. The plug-in must be downloaded from Microsoft's web site for use in Netscape, Opera, or other browsers.

If the user does not have the plug-in installed, he or she has the option of saving the PowerPoint file to the hard drive, where it can be opened within the PowerPoint program, if it is installed on the user's computer. If neither the Viewer plug-in nor the full version of PowerPoint is installed on the user's computer, then there is no way for the user to access the content of the file, regardless of the person's disability status.

The PowerPoint Viewer plug-in is, for all intents and purposes, worthless to blind individuals who use screen readers. The only way a blind person can access the original PowerPoint file is by opening it up in the full version of PowerPoint. This can be a problem if the blind person does not own a copy of the full version of PowerPoint.

Still, posting the original file is the easiest way to publish the content to the Internet, and it gives the most faithful representation of the slide show author's content. There is no reason to discourage posting the original file as long as an HTML alternative is provided.

Convert to HTML

You should make sure to provide an HTML version of your PowerPoint presentation in addition to or instead of the PPT file. The easiest way to do this is to use the Illinois Accessible Web Publishing Wizard, but there are other methods of converting a PowerPoint file into HTML. We will review some of these techniques in the next section.

Use an HTML Alternative to PowerPoint

If you are feeling adventurous, and if you feel comfortable with HTML, you may want to consider abandoning PowerPoint altogether and designing your presentations in HTML. There are definite advantages to this approach:

1. The presentations are natively accessible; there is no need to create a separate, accessible, version of your presentation.
2. The file size will almost certainly be smaller. All things being equal, a smaller file is always better on the web.
3. It removes the temptation to use distracting transitions and sound effects, and other features that are commonly misused in PowerPoint presentations.

We will highlight some of the best HTML-based presentation tools later in this chapter.