Making Word Documents Accessible



Making PowerPoint Presentations AccessibleGuidance for University of Glasgow Teaching StaffTable of Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u 1.What We Must Do: Our Legal Obligations PAGEREF _Toc48099114 \h 22.How to Meet Our Legal Obligations PAGEREF _Toc48099115 \h 32.1.Structure PAGEREF _Toc48099116 \h 32.2.Content PAGEREF _Toc48099117 \h 32.3.Images PAGEREF _Toc48099118 \h 42.4.Tables PAGEREF _Toc48099119 \h 42.5.Video PAGEREF _Toc48099120 \h 43.Using PowerPoint’s Accessibility Checker PAGEREF _Toc48099121 \h 53.1.What it does PAGEREF _Toc48099122 \h 53.2.How to use it PAGEREF _Toc48099123 \h 53.3.If your presentation has issues PAGEREF _Toc48099124 \h 63.4.If your presentation has no issues PAGEREF _Toc48099125 \h 6What We Must Do: Our Legal ObligationsThe University wants to ensure the digital information we make available through all our portals is accessible to the vast majority of our users: current and prospective students/staff, funders, collaborators and the wider public. In addition, we have legal obligations under the Equality Act 2010, and new Digital Accessibility Regulations 2018. These regulations require that any material you post online in the course of your work for the University of Glasgow (e.g. PowerPoint presentations posted to Moodle) must be all of the following things to all of your students:PerceivableOperable UnderstandableRobustYou can learn more about exactly what these four terms mean, along with examples, on the UofG Digital Accessibility webpages: gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/digitalaccessibility. However, if you are using Office 365, these legal obligations can be easily met if you use the in-built accessibility checker. The checker is extremely simple, and it recommends remedies to make your documents compliant. See page PAGEREF _Ref48005499 \h 5 for an example of how it works.Note: If you are uploading your presentation to Moodle, do not convert to PDF. Upload your presentation in .ppt or .pptx format. This allows students to adjust font sizes to suit, retains information within the file about hierarchies and relationships between pieces of content (e.g. which boxes are slide titles vs. general slide contents), and generally improves compatibility with assistive technologies that your students may be using.How to Meet Our Legal ObligationsThe full list of accessibility standards would be too long to publish in a short guide, but these steps will help you avoid common issues for PowerPoint presentations.StructureThe way your document is structured will help users navigate it. Try clicking View > Outline View on one of your presentations to see an example of this. That outline structure is also how assistive technologies will read and understand your presentations. Text boxes can be dragged anywhere on a page in PowerPoint, and while this can create an intuitive visual reading order for users, this doesn’t necessarily translate into a sequence that a screen reader would be able to interpret correctly. Therefore:Always start with PowerPoint Layouts, as these are structured to be accessibleEvery text box, image, shape etc. is ‘stacked’ in an order from bottom to top, even if none of your objects directly touch or overlap.Newer objects are added at the front / top of the stack, until you change this.When you have added your contents, make sure they are stacked correctly:Open the Selection Pane (Home tab > Arrange). Assistive technologies start by reading items at the bottom, as these are typically the foundation of a slide, and progress to the top.Read more about using the Selection Pane to arrange and stack items.ContentMake sure fonts are large (at least 24pt) and can be seen when presentingUse sufficient white space to ensure that separate objects appear separateMinimise the use of PowerPoint AnimationsAvoid using inbuilt action buttons and other shapes as navigationProvide alternative text (‘alt text’) for any chartsTo add alt text, click an object to reveal the Format tab (Windows) / Shape Format tab (Mac), then use the Alt Text button to open the Alt Text Pane:ImagesInclude alternative text with all visuals?Briefly describe the image, and mention the existence of any text and its intentAvoid using text in images as the sole method of conveying information. If you must use an image with text in it, repeat that text in the document.?For examples, open the Alt Text pane on any of the images in this guideTablesUse a simple table structure and include column headersAvoid the use of split cells, merged cells, or nested tablesDon't have any completely blank rows or columnsAdd alt text to your tableVideoIf embedding video in your presentation, make videos accessible to visually impaired and hearing-impaired users.Subtitles typically contain a transcription (or translation) of the dialogue.Closed captions typically also describe audio cues such as music or sound effects that occur off-screen.Video description makes video more accessible to individuals who are blind or visually impaired. Video description means audio-narrated descriptions of a video's key visual elements. These descriptions are typically inserted into natural pauses in the program's dialogue.Using PowerPoint’s Accessibility CheckerWhat it doesThe checker tells you how to fix any issues, which it classifies into four categories:ErrorsContent that will be impossible, or very difficult, for someone with a disability or assistive technology (e.g. a screen reader) to useWarningsContent that will likely be understood, but with difficultyTipsSuggestions that will improve the experience for usersIntelligent ServicesAssigned wherever the software has automatically applied a solution, and you should therefore check that this has been done appropriatelyA full list of the accessibility rules that could generate an error message is available from Microsoft Office Support.How to use itCreate your presentation with the accessibility checker open from the start. This will help you spot issues the first time you create them, allowing you to avoid replicating them. To start, open the ‘Review’ tab from the Ribbon and use the ‘Check Accessibility’ button:If your presentation has issuesThe checker will:Categorise issues by severityTell you how to resolve each issueAllow you to click each issue to jump directly to its locationExplain the impact of each issue for your studentsIf your presentation has no issuesIf / when your presentation is free of issues, you will be told:‘No accessibility issues found. People with disabilities should not have difficulty reading this presentation.’ ................
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