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From: dinesh tripathi
Date: Tue, Sep 05 2023 7:45AM
Subject: PowerPoint Issue
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Hi,

How does the Screen Reader handle animations in PowerPoint?

Screen reader didn't read the alt text as my expectations when I group a number of objects together. Does screen reader read the alt text of the group or all grouped objects?

For the complex image on PPT, can I add notes and make the slide decorative?

Thank you for advices and suggestions?

Dinesh

From: Nick Bromley
Date: Tue, Sep 05 2023 9:37AM
Subject: Re: PowerPoint Issue
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PowerPoint files can be a pain for screen readers, and you'll get different behaviours depending on how you're viewing the presentation (e.g. Edit/Normal mode, Slide Show, Reading view, Outline view) and which screen readers you're using. You may not know what view your users will select, so I strongly recommend testing a representative sample of your content in all these modes with a few different screen readers to better understand how it is handled. It may be difficult to achieve full accessibility across all modes.
Animations are hard / impossible to make fully accessible for screen readers, so avoid if you can. For essential animations, one approach is to add a visually-hidden text placeholder (immediately after the slide title in the reading order) that indicates the slide contains animation otherwise screen reader users will not know and may struggle to understand the content. If required, add a text alternative to the animation in the Notes field, and make reference to this in the visually-hidden text, e.g. "This slide contains animation. A description is available in the Notes field."
If you need alt text for a non-animated group of objects, consider instead either creating the image as a separate artwork outside of PowerPoint, or export the group as a picture from PowerPoint:
* create the individual parts of the image on the slide as normal
* single click each part then right-click and select 'Save as Picture…'
* delete the original image from the slide then insert the png version you've just created
* add required alt text
Image quality may not be sufficient with this approach, however, and it can mess up word wrapping if it includes text so some trial and error may be needed.

- - -
Nick Bromley
Director & Accessibility Consultant
Red Kite Digital Accessibility Ltd