MHCC - PowerPoint 2013 Accessibility Techniques Mt. Hood Community College Accessibility Guide for electronic documents using PowerPoint 2013. The list on this page will link to the pages of instructions associated with the accessibility features. The document may grow as new questions are asked. The first few accessibility techniques will be PowerPoint 2013 specific. The rest will be similar to the accessibility techniques utilized in Word 2013 and Outlook 2013. The purpose of this guide is to assist in developing accessibility in the PowerPoint slides. The guide does not give step by step instruction on how to create PowerPoint slides. If you have an older PowerPoint with the file-type extension of.ppt, open the file in the PowerPoint 2013 and resave the file with the extension of.pptx, in order to have access to all the accessibility features. Contents Logical Reading Order for each Slide... 2 Unique Slide Titles... 4 Hiding the Title from View... 4 Closed Caption Audio or Video Media... 5 Color Visibility for Color Blindness... 5 Images and Objects Need Alternative Text Descriptions... 6 Descriptive Alt Text for Images and Other Objects... 7 Table Structures Please Keep It Simple... 8 Create Meaningful Text for Hypertext Links... 9 How to Create Hyperlink Text in PowerPoint... 10 Accessibility Checker in PowerPoint... 11 Saving PowerPoint For PDF with Accessibility... 12 Other Accessible Formatting in PowerPoint 2013... 14 Page 1 - Powerpoint 2013 Accessibility Instructions
Logical Reading Order for each Slide People who use a screen reader will hear the text, objects and other content in the order that the text boxes were created. If you are using a template, the reading order is typically correct. However, if you developed your own layout, the reading order can become jumbled. To check the reading order of the information on the slide do the following steps. (NOTE This reading order for the MAC version of PowerPoint may be different than the description below.) 1) Select HOME > Drawing > Arrange (Note in the illustration below, the Arrange button is enlarged in relation to the overall PowerPoint ribbon.) 2) Choose Selection Pane. 3) The Selection Pane will open to the right of the slide. (Topic is continued on the next page.) Page 2 - Powerpoint 2013 Accessibility Instructions
4) How to tell which item is connected to what object? In PowerPoint 2013 (for Windows) the reading order is the opposite of the list. Click on each Selection item listed in the Selection Pane to reveal which text area/object in the slide that selection item is connected with. When I clicked on Rectangle 4 the text area on the slide changed to a selected object with grey lines and sizing options. 5) The important fact to know! The last item in the Selection Pane will be read first on the slide by a screen reader. Hence, using the Selection Pane example (3), from above, the reading order will be as follows: a. Rectangle 4 = 1 st read b. Rectangle 3 = 2 nd read c. Rectangle 2 = 3 rd read d. Slide Number Placeholder 3 = 4 th read 6) To re-order any of the items in the Selection Pane, select the item to be moved to highlight the item in the Selection pane, then use the arrow buttons at the top of the list to move that highlighted item up or down. 7) Review each slide in the PowerPoint for the correct reading order. Page 3 - Powerpoint 2013 Accessibility Instructions
Unique Slide Titles It is recommended that each slide contain a title that is unique. The titles are a navigational tool for screen reader users. If you are using a template, type the unique title name in the Title Text Box. On the other hand, if you don t want the titles to be visible but remain accessible, the following process can be done to hide the title on each slide. Hiding the Unique Title from View 1) Select HOME > Drawing > Arrange (Note in the illustration below, the Arrange button is enlarged in relation to the overall PowerPoint ribbon.) 2) Choose Selection Pane. 3) The Selection Pane will open to the right of the slide. 4) Note the eye icon to the right of the items. Click on the eye associated with the title to hide the title from view on the slide. 5) After the title is hidden, the other text area objects can be adjusted for your desired layout. Page 4 - Powerpoint 2013 Accessibility Instructions
Closed Caption Audio or Video Media Some PowerPoint 2013 users like to insert media into their slides. If the media that you include has already be captioned with Timed Text Markup (TTML), the captioning will be maintained in the PowerPoint. If your media is not captioned, a small add-in application, known as STAMP (Sub-titling Text Add-in for Microsoft PowerPoint), has been created for PowerPoint 2010, and useable in PowerPoint 2013, that can sub-title text. To download the add-in, the STAMP application is located on SourceForge, Color Visibility for Color Blindness Although being Color Blind may not be considered to be a disability, it has the potential of preventing the individual from distinguishing certain colors, such as green and red colors may look light beige or light grey. Some ideas for good color variance in the PowerPoint: Try to avoid extensive use of orange, red, and green in your template and text. Circle or use animation to highlight information, rather than relying on laser pointers or color. (Remember to include alternative text descriptions for any objects such as circles, squares or animations.) Use texture in graphs, instead of color, to highlight points of interest. Use the PowerPoint View function for Color/Grayscale for Contrast. 1) For checking contrast, select View, then select Grayscale in the Color/Grayscale options. 2) Various grayscale options will open. Select Grayscale, one more time, in the Grayscale tab. This gives you a good idea of how the colors will contrast with each other. 3) To return to the original view, select Back to Color View in the Grayscale tab. Page 5 - Powerpoint 2013 Accessibility Instructions
The first few pages of PowerPoint Accessibility are specific for PowerPoint only. From this point on, you can refer to the MHCC Word 2013 Accessibility Checklist for additional information on accessibility techniques. Images and Objects Need Alternative Text Descriptions Alternative Text descriptions (Alt Text) helps people who use screen readers to understand what an image means or the information that the image conveys. Alt text should be used on all the following insertions/objects in each slide. Pictures Clip Art Charts Tables Shapes Screen shots SmartArt graphics Video and Audio files To add Alt text, do the following: 1) Use the mouse to right-click on the image/object for the pop-up list of options. Then click Format. It may be worded as Format Picture, Format Shape, Format Chart, etc. (For tables, click Table Properties.) 2) Click on the Size and Properties box to access the Alt Text Description box. If the description box is not yet open, click on Alt Text to open the description box. Do not type in the Title box, only add a description of the image, shape, chart, etc., in the Description box. The description will automatically save when you leave this section. Note If you have copied images from online websites, verify that the alt-text is correctly describing the image. Page 6 - Powerpoint 2013 Accessibility Instructions
Descriptive Alt Text for Images and Other Objects You may want to refer to the Word 2013 Accessibility Checklist for additional information on this subject. Appropriate Alt Text descriptions for images involve providing just enough information to explain what the sighted person is seeing. For example, image at the beginning of this Alternative Text section might be described as, Graduating student holding diploma. The description will depend on the context of the image in the document. It is not necessary to describe all the fine details such as color of the cap and gown, or that the diploma is in the foreground while the student is blurred in the background. The gist of the picture is all that is necessary. If the image is simply for decoration and does not pertain to the content, it can be described as decoration. Charts, graphs and symbols might need to be described with more detail based on the image s message, which might not be available in the overall content of the document. If the chart/symbol image refers to detailed information located somewhere in the document, that description can be noted with a Figure # reference from the alt text to the explanation in the document. Photos/Graphics: Images of Charts/Graphs: Too Much Info: Photo of Professor Pradeep smiling while sitting behind his office desk. Not Adequate: Smiling Not Acceptable: data:image/jpeg;base64,/9j/ //Z, image1.gif, or dstuns.iitm.in/professorpradeep.jpg Appropriate: Professor Pradeep Text Continues in next Column Depends Might Be Too Much: Graph Home broadband penetration, Jun 04 (23%), Oct 04 (27%), Feb 05 (32%), Jun 05 (29%), Oct 05 (36%), Feb 06 (42%) [This will be dependent on how much the individual will need to know when there are not additional descriptions in the main content of the document.] Not Adequate: Graph Appropriate: Graph Home broadband penetration. Date range June 2004 February 2007. Trends of growth starting at 23% and ending at 49%. Reference Figure 1.7 in text Shortcut Description Method - If you have a lot of photos to describe in a document, you may want to wait until you run the Accessibility Checker. The checker will show a list of the photos that will need descriptions so that you can describe them all at the end. Page 7 - Powerpoint 2013 Accessibility Instructions
Table Structures Please Keep It Simple Tables can become quite complex if the cells are merged, split or other tables are nested inside of cells. Try to keep the data predictable and easy to navigate. Check the reading order of the table cells. 1. Select the first cell of the table. 2. Press the Tab key repeatedly to make sure that the focus moves across the row and then down to the first cell of the next row. 3. If you need to merge or split cells to simplify the table, on the Table Tools Layout tab, in the Merge group, click Merge Cells or Split Cells as appropriate. 4. Try to avoid using blank cells for formatting purposes. If there are more than two or three blank cells in a row, it would be advisable to indicate the blank cells by typing empty in the cell. If you want to change the color of the empty text to match the background color of the table cell, that is appropriate. The screen reader can still read the text even if it cannot be seen by the sighted individual. Read more about Tables in the MHCC Word 2013 Accessibility Instructions guide online. Page 8 - Powerpoint 2013 Accessibility Instructions
Create Meaningful Text for Hypertext Links Individuals using screen readers can have a difficult time with hyperlinks that are just URLs or URIs. It is extremely helpful to provide meaningful link text that is associated with the link. Most hyperlinks are not considered accessible without some meaningful text. PowerPoint will allow you the ability to add text to the hyperlink so that a user of a screen reader will know more about the hyperlink. As we are all learning, some hyperlinks may not make sense to a listener, and can even be confusing for most sighted individuals without contextual wording. Also, it is frequently assumed that the listener will hear the content leading up to the link. They will if they are reading the entire page. But screen readers allow the users to cut through the content to find only the links (similar to the shortcuts for headings and lists). For accessibility purposes, it is always best to create a hyperlink with meaningful text. Some examples are presented below: These Links may not have much meaning using a screen reader: http://www.cnn.com/2006/arc/sec/nat/vit/514?id=a254.php (Not real link) http://www.seoads.com/index.html (Not real link) These Links have more meaning but may need more context http://freedomscientific.com http://www.mhcc.edu These Links have adequate meaning with text Freedom Scientific Software for Vision Impairments Mt. Hood Community College If you are at a loss as to what to name the hyperlink, look to the title of the webpage that the link is connected to for an idea. Read more about Hyperlinks in the MHCC Word 2013 Accessibility Instructions guide online. Page 9 - Powerpoint 2013 Accessibility Instructions
How to Create Hyperlink Text in PowerPoint Creating a hyperlink in PowerPoint is easy. Place the cursor at the point you want to link to begin, or highlight the text designated for the hyperlink. Right click on the highlighted text or at the cursor s starting point, to open the dropdown list. Select the Hyperlink option to open the Insert Hyperlink window. In the Insert Hyperlink window, the four options buttons on the left column allow you to link to other files, internet pages, within the existing document and other options as shown. Near the top center of the window, the name of the link can be typed in the field Text to display:. The Look in: option allows you to find files on your system and can be ignored for a webpage hyperlink. Near the bottom, the Address field is for the URL address to the webpage. Then click OK to finalize the link. To learn more about accessible hyperlinks, hypertext, screen readers as well as keyboard accessibility of links, WebAIM Links and Hypertext page can give you more insight about the subject based on internet standards. (http://webaim.org/techniques/hypertext) Page 10 - Powerpoint 2013 Accessibility Instructions
Accessibility Checker in PowerPoint Most of the Microsoft Office programs now have an Accessibility Checker. To use the checker in PowerPoint. Older Powerpoints can also be checked by opening the file in PowerPoint 2013 and saving it with the.pptx file type extension. Click on the FILE tab in the upper left corner of PowerPoint. The INFO page will open. Click on the Check for Issues button. Select the Check Accessibility option from the pop-up. A list of potential issues, errors and warnings will open to allow you to fix or access the situation. If the triangle is hollow and/or pointing to the right, click on it to open the listed issues. To learn more about the Accessibility Checker, visit Office Support s Check for Accessibility Issues and Rules Used by Accessibility Checker (https://support.office.com/en-us/article/check-foraccessibility-issues-a16f6de0-2f39-4a2b-8bd8-5ad801426c7f?ui=en-us&rs=en-us&ad=us) (https://support.office.com/en-us/article/rules-used-by-the-accessibility-checker-651e08f2-0fc3-4e10-aaca- 74b4a67101c1?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US) Page 11 - Powerpoint 2013 Accessibility Instructions
Saving PowerPoint for PDF with Accessibility All PowerPoints can be saved as PDFs but to retain all that accessibility added to the slides, you want to use the Export function. In the main PowerPoint screen, click on the FILE tab in the upper left corner of the window. On the Info page, select Export (between Share and Close) in the left column. Then click Create PDF/XPS and click on the Create PDF/XPS button to the right. Page 12 - Powerpoint 2013 Accessibility Instructions
Give the file a Name and the Save as type as PDF. Click on the Options button to open more PowerPoint/PDF options The Publish option choices are up to you for handouts, or slides, or other format options. However, be sure to check the two boxes directly under the Include non-printing information - the Document properties and the Document structure for accessibility options. (Note example to the right.) Then click the OK button to return to the Publish as PDF window. Page 13 - Powerpoint 2013 Accessibility Instructions
Now, to save the PDF, click the Publish button. PowerPoint 2013 Saved as HTML? Many versions of PowerPoint have a Save As Web Page option. It does not create accessible HTML content and should be avoided. Other Accessible Formatting in PowerPoint 2013 Some topics such as lists, columns, table headings and heading styles, were not covered in this guide. Refer back to the MHCC Word 2013 Instructions for discussion on those formatting styles. Another resource for PowerPoint Accessibility can be found at WebAIM PowerPoint Techniques. ( http://webaim.org/techniques/powerpoint/ ) Page 14 - Powerpoint 2013 Accessibility Instructions