Creating Accessible Presentations: Features and Tools

March 23, 2023

Megan Sellmer, Melody Shih, and Tobe Duggan

Land Acknowledgment

Our presenters today come from across this land, living and working in what we now know as Canada. We respect and affirm the inherent and Treaty Rights of all Indigenous Peoples and will continue to honour the commitments to self-determination and sovereignty we have made to Indigenous Nations and Peoples. We respectfully ask for you all to take a moment to acknowledge the lands on which you reside.

Tables

• Avoid them! If you must use tables, keep them simple.
  • Mark up the header row.
  • Don't use a fixed layout.
  • Don't merged cells.
  • Don't have blank cells.
  • Use the largest text possible and a sans-serif font.

Transitions and Animations

• Avoid using elaborate transitions and automation.
  • They don't communicate anything important in the presentation.
  • They can be distracting and make some viewers sick.
• In some cases, animation can help viewers focus on the discussed text.
  • This especially helps when there is too much text on the slide.

Drawings and Annotations

• Avoid using drawings, both in creating your slides and during your presentation.
• These are inaccessible and often difficult to see, especially when done during the presentation.
• Depending on their creation, they use only colour to convey meaning.
• Add alt-text descriptions if you use them, which we will discuss next week.

Captions and Subtitles

• Google Slide and PowerPoint let you add captions/subtitles to your presentations.
• When presenting in a room of people, use the captions in Google Slides or PowerPoint.
• If possible, provide an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter.
• We recommend that you edit the captions before posting your presentation recording.

PowerPoint: Enabling Subtitles and Captions

• How to turn on captions in PowerPoint:
  • Begin the slide show and click on the ”CC” icon on the bottom left of the screen.
  • You can adjust the subtitle settings under the “Slide Show” option in the PowerPoint toolbar.

Google Slides: Enabling Subtitles and Captions

• How to turn on caption in Google Slides:
  • Begin the slide show and click on the more options (three vertical dots) at the bottom left side of the screen.
  • Select "Captions Preferences" and choose "Toggle captions."
  • Or use "Command + Shift + C" (on Mac) or "Ctrl + F5" (on Windows).

Notes and Comments

• If using notes in PowerPoint, Keynote, and Google Slides.
  • Use a large text size.
  • Use a sans serif font.
  • Consider the colour contrast between the text and background.
  • Comments can be accessible, but avoid them if unnecessary.

Accessible Handouts

• Create accessible handouts for your presentation. 
  • We created HTML, PDF, DOC, and PPT formats for this presentation series for the slides.
• Unless properly marked up, PDFs are not accessible.
  • When I created the PDF version of this presentation, the reading order was improperly organized, and the items were improperly tagged.

Creating an HTML Version of Your Slides

• You cannot create an HTML document directly from PowerPoint.
  • Export the presentation in Rich Text Format (RTF) and open it in your preferred Word Processor (reformatting may be required).
  • Save as “Web Page” or HTML option.
• In Google Slides, you can publish your slides to the web.
  • Select "File" > "Share" > "Publish to the Web" > "Embed Link"
• In Keynote, you can export your slides as HTML.
  • Select "File" > "Export To" > "HTML" > click on "Next" > "Save"

PowerPoint Accessibility Checker

• PowerPoint provides an Accessibility Checker for your presentation.
• Click "Review" in the toolbar and select "Check Accessibility."
• What it checks for:
  • Errors
  • Warnings
  • Tips

Slide Reading Order

• Each element of a slide is one item.
• The items are organized into a specific reading order.
• As you edit a slide, the reading order can change.

How to Edit the Slide Reading Order

• In PowerPoint:
  • From the ”Home” toolbar, click on “Drawing” > “Arrange” > “Selection Pane.”
• In Google Slides
  • Select an item and choose > “Arrange” > “Order” > an option (e.g., “Bring to front”).
• In Keynote:
  • Click on "Arrange" in the top menu or right-side toolbar > choose an option (e.g., send backwards).

Demonstration: Person with Low Vision

• Now a demonstration by Tobe!

Demonstration: Screen Reader User

• Now a demonstration by Melody!

Thank You!

• Thank you for attending the second webinar in the “Creating Accessible Presentations” series.
• The next webinar is ”Images, Videos, and Graphics” on March 30, 2023, at 2:00 pm EST/11:00 pm PST.
• Questions?

References

WAI Making Events Accessible: Checklist for meetings, conferences, training, and presentations that are remote/virtual, in-person, or hybrid.

WebAim Accessible PowerPoint Presentation

Microsoft: Make your PowerPoint presentations accessible to people with disabilities.

Create accessible documents, spreadsheets, or presentations with Pages, Numbers, or Keynote.

Google Docs: Make your document or presentation more accessible.

Presenter Toolkit by Rebecca Shortt.

Virtual Presentation Accessibility Guidelines by the America Anthropological Association.