WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Question: How to convert a PowerPoint into anaccessible page?

for

From: John E Brandt
Date: Jul 14, 2014 8:39AM

I think Olaf has covered at least part of my question to the original author
of this question. My question is:

Why bother sharing a PowerPoint presentation in any format other than as the
original PPT file?

IMHO...<rant>

The only purpose in sharing a PowerPoint - in any format - would be to give
it to someone who was preparing to present on the same topic and by doing
so, would save them the time in making their own slides.

If the purpose is to share information about or from one's oral
presentation, a set of PowerPoint slides should be the least helpful - IF
the PowerPoint is created in a "proper" way.

In reality, many/most people simply create a set of notes - or worse, an
entire speech - and convert that into a PowerPoint with perhaps some bullets
and images. Then they drive the participants crazy by simply reading the
slides to the audience. Yuck.

A well-constructed set of presentation slides should only seek to illustrate
and amplify the presenters words - not replace them; providing a visual
representation that attenuates the spoken word. Think Steve Jobs - single
words, pithy phrases, lots of images.

So if you need it to communicate the content of an oral presentation - just
create a set of speakers notes, along with your charts and graphs, images
and graphics, and make it into a nice accessible digital document and share
that with the participants. If done well, you can even share this with the
participants before the event so they can read ahead saving everyone some
time. You can also share resources and links in this format, so you audience
will listen to you and not be busily trying to write down notes of what you
are sharing.

</rant>

Granted, people use PowerPoint for all kinds of reasons, not just oral
presentations. But depending on those reasons, there may be many ways to
present this content as a fully accessible digital document.

~j

John E. Brandt
jebswebs: accessible and universal web design,
development and consultation
<EMAIL REMOVED>
207-622-7937
Augusta, Maine, USA

@jebswebs

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Olaf Drümmer
Sent: Sunday, July 13, 2014 6:34 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Question: How to convert a PowerPoint into an
accessible page?

Hi,
On 12 Jul 2014, at 23:58, "Robert Jaquiss" < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> I have a PowerPoint that I want to convert to an accessible web page.

I was wondering about this question for a while, and was somehow surprised
that not a single useful idea came to mind… Then it dawned on me that
**one** web page is conceptually the wrong approach for representing a
PowerPoint presentation. It is its very nature that it consists of a deck of
slides. Individual slides that is. So the closest one could get to replicate
a slide deck on the web would be to use a stack or sequence of slide-loike
entities. Using plain HTML this would probably mean to use one web page per
slide, and link them in a suitable fashion, using "next slide" links and
maybe also "previous slide" links. Using CSS, JavaScript, and/or maybe SVG
would allow for more dynamic options inside what could technically still be
considered a single web page, though accessibility could eveneasily suffer
in such an approach.

But leaving all this reasoning behind I am still puzzled why I have never
heard of an accessible representation for a slide presentation in the form
of HTML content…? Does it exist? Or are HTML / web pages just not a good fit
for [accessible] slide presentations? How is everybody else sharing their
slide presentations in an accessible manner?

Olaf

messages to <EMAIL REMOVED>