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From: Jonathan Metz
Date: Dec 12, 2013 4:41PM

Hi there,

I have seen a lot of US government agencies posting PowerPoints as stand alone documents. I’ve always been under the impression that PowerPoints were by and large largely inaccessible unless a user has a copy of PowerPoint available (and even then it’s pretty inaccessible). An old article on WebAim has said that the PowerPoint Viewer is useless to screen reader users. Since MS developed it in 2011, I’m not sure that this has changed at all.

Since Section 508 requires the inclusion of a link to an accessible plugin to access the powerpoint, technically does including a PowerPoint require the use of an extra more accessible alternative to compensate for the lack of an accessible plugin? If not, what should agencies include as an accessible plugin?

Thanks for the feedback,

Jon Metz