PowerPoint Accessibility
Alternatives to PowerPoint

Introduction

If you don't mind giving up PowerPoint's interface, you could try an HTML-based slide show tool such as Opera Show and S5. When using these programs, you don't have to worry about converting them to HTML because that's their native format. You will not have to make alternate versions of any of your presentations. You would just have to make sure that the HTML is accessible by adding all of the appropriate alt text for images and so on.

Many of the HTML slide shows you see on the web are rather drab, but this is more a reflection of the authors' lack of imagination than any limitations inherent in HTML slides. If you insert your own style sheet (including background image, if you like), illustrations and formatting, your slides can be as creative as you can imagine. Your file will probably be smaller, and everyone will be able to access your slides, even if they are using a screen reader.

Opera Show

Opera Show has been a feature in the Opera browser since Version 4 and was one of the earliest methods used to divide one web page into multiple slides using Cascading Style Sheets, or CSS. The presentation can be viewed or printed as a single web page or it can be viewed as a series of full-screen, styled slides similar to a PowerPoint presentation.

One of the best ways to become familiar with Opera Show is by using the Opera Show Generator. It gives you an idea of the capability of Opera Show and allows you to save the file and review it later. The Generator allows you to create an Opera Show file through a complex online form. The generator itself is not completely accessible, and you will need to add alt text to the final Opera Show file, but otherwise the output should be accessible. The Generator is available at Opera Generator - external link

At the top of the page you will notice several blanks where you can enter information like the author and date of creation. If you choose to fill in this information, it will be displayed at the top of the printed presentation.

In the next, section you can customize the appearance of your slides. There are three style sheets to choose from and other layout options, like the ability to include a graphic and slogan on every page.

Once you have customized the appearance it is time to create the slide. You can choose from one of four types of slides: an ordered list, and unordered list, a nested ordered list and a paragraph. You can insert images into any one of these slides and you can use some HTML tags to style the paragraph slides.

Once you have created a few slides, select Create Presentation and view your result.

There are a few keyboard commands worth noting:

• F11 on a PC will toggle between Opera Show mode and normal mode. On a Mac, select View > Full Screen and then press the Esc key to exit.
• PageDown will advance forward one slide at a time.
• PageUp will move the presentation backward one slide at a time.
• P will show a preview of the printed presentation. This only works in normal mode.

Although the generator is much more limited than a program like PowerPoint, it is surprisingly full-featured for a web-based slide show tool. If you are interested in learning about Opera Show, this generator is probably the best place to start because it will give you a good idea of its capabilities. After viewing the file, you can save it as an XML file. The file has all the styles embedded and has comments to help the user and it usually produces valid XHTML 1.0 (strict) page.

The main problem with Opera Show is that it only displays correctly in the Opera browser. In any other browser, all the slides will appear as one web page with minimal styling. Opera is available as a free download at: Opera - external link

Simple Standards-Based Slide Show System (S5)

Eric Meyer’s S5, or "Simple Standards-Based Slide Show System" takes the good aspects of Opera Show and improves on them. Like Opera Show, the slide show is housed in one XHTML document and can be viewed section by section or as one document. It also has a separate style for print, where the presenter’s notes are visible. S5 has additional features, including the following:

• It can be viewed on any modern browser.
• There are a variety of intuitive keyboard and mouse controls. For instance, you can go to the next slide by hitting Enter, the spacebar, the , etc.
• You can jump to any slide in the presentation through a dropdown list.
• S5 is distributed under a Creative Commons License, so you can use and modify the program free of charge as long as you abide by the licensing agreement.
• It is even Opera Show compatible.

The best way to learn about S5 is probably to view a slide presentation explaining it available at S5: An Introduction - external link.

The first thing you see should look something like this:

At the bottom-right corner of the screen you will notice 3 symbols, « » Ø. There is also a dropdown list that appears when you hover right below the controls. This list allows you to select any slide in the presentation.

Click « to go to the previous screen, » to go to the next screen and Ø to toggle between the presentation view and the unstyled view of all the slides. If you hit Ø you will notice a drastic change in the appearance of the page.

Now all the styles are disabled and all the slides are visible.

There are several ways to navigate through the slides; you can use any of the following controls.

• Next slide: Space bar, Enter, , , Page Down, click anywhere in the slide that isn't in the control area (lower right corner), click » in lower right corner, or accesskey "X"
• Previous slide: , , Page Up, click « in lower right corner, or accesskey "Z"
• Toggle the slide styles: Click on the toggle button (to the left of the arrows), press T, or accesskey "T"

Although S5 has several strengths, there are some limitations, including the following:

• Not everything functions like it should within Opera Show.
  • While viewing the presentation in Opera’s full-screen view, you are limited to Opera Show’s functionality. That means you can only navigate in a linear fashion with the Page Up and Page Down keys.
  • Some experimental features, like transitioning one bullet point at a time, are unavailable, making the page unreadable in Opera Show.
  • If you follow a link within the presentation and then hit the back button, you will return to the first slide.
• Resizing text can sometimes lead to problems with the page layout.
• You can only advance the show one slide at a time, not by bullet point or graphic like in PowerPoint. This is possible in an experimental version of S5 and may soon be a standard feature.
• Perhaps the greatest limitation is the need to be comfortable with HTML and probably CSS. There is not an easy to use interface like there is with PowerPoint or Opera Show. At least not yet.

Still, despite all these limitation, this is one of the best tools for creating and HTML slide show. If you are going to design a slide show, and you have the HTML and CSS know-how, this is probably the first place to look. If you consider yourself a JavaScript and CSS expert, its highly configurable nature will probably make it even more inviting.

Create Your Own HTML-based Slides From Scratch

If you're really adventurous, you might consider simply creating your own slides from within Dreamweaver, FrontPage, or any other HTML editor. This method would give you absolute control over the appearance and accessibility of all of the content. You would have to create your own "next" and "previous" buttons and make sure the links are accurate, but other than that, this method isn't as difficult as you might think.