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PowerPoint Accessibility Question?

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From: Paul J. Adam
Date: Jun 1, 2012 10:23AM

Is Windows the only OS that PPTs are accessible on? And are you required to have MS Office & JAWS to hear a slideshow in presentation mode with a screen reader?

I tried Open Office and IBM Lotus Symphony but neither worked in presentation mode. Also the free PPT viewer from MS is not accessible at all.

I also tried MS Office & Keynote on the Mac and those did not work with VoiceOver in presentation mode either. I have also tried reading a PowerPoint sent via email to an iPhone with VoiceOver and while the text was accessible the images, even with alt text, were always garbled. VO would read a bunch of numbers & text for each image that made no sense.

These issues sound like pretty good reasons to avoid using PowerPoint unless you're positive that everyone reading the slideshow will have Windows, MS Office, & JAWS. All of which are not free (or cheap).

Paul J. Adam
Accessibility Evangelist
Deque Systems
<EMAIL REMOVED>
www.PaulJAdam.com
@pauljadam on Twitter