Creating Accessible Presentations

1. Creating Accessible Presentations Richard SteinbergTexas Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services (DARS)

2. Course Objectives • Understanding Disabilities and Technologies • Presentations: In Person and Online • Preparation Tips • Types of Accessibility Issues and Presentation Situations • Delivery Tips • Best Practices for PowerPoint Richard Steinberg – Creating Accessible Presentations

3. “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” --Steven Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Richard Steinberg – Creating Accessible Presentations

4. Some Statistics • 8% of population is colorblind • In Texas = more than 2 million • More than 620,000 blind/Texas • More than 670,000 hearing impaired/Texas Richard Steinberg – Creating Accessible Presentations

5. Prepare, Prepare, Prepare Before presentation, ask participants’ accessibility needs, plan strategy on how to best deliver information, & avoid locking out people with disabilities. Richard Steinberg – Creating Accessible Presentations

6. Types of Presentations • Auditorium • Teleconference or webinar • Small group in person • Teleworking or geographically distant Richard Steinberg – Creating Accessible Presentations

7. Think About Before: Hearing(Deaf or Hard of Hearing) • Sound system • Sign language interpreter • CART (computer assisted real-time translation) services • Accommodations for satellite locations • Captioning and audio description for video • Captions also useful for others: • If anyone isn’t sure exactly what was said • English as a second language • Faster to find information in a transcript than in a video Richard Steinberg – Creating Accessible Presentations

8. Think About Before: Visual(Blind, Low Vision, or Color Blind) • Can everyone see graphics? Describe them/Keep simple. • Email presentation beforehand. • Do you need to make large print or Braille handouts? • Screen reading or magnifying software, Braille output. • Can’t rely on color alone to convey info. • Color contrast ratio for low vision. • If there’s video, add audio description. Richard Steinberg – Creating Accessible Presentations

9. Think About Before: Other • Physical disabilities: • May interact with computer using different input. • Intellectual disabilities: • May need more time to complete tasks. • Moving or flickering objects could be problem. • And for everyone, disability nor not: • Plain language and multiple languages. • Too much text—people read screen instead of listen. • File size—Can graphics be optimized? Can file be broken into parts? • Connection speed. Richard Steinberg – Creating Accessible Presentations

10. Considerations forIn-Person Presentations • Speak clearly into the microphone at a moderate pace, and face audience. • Repeat questions from the audience for all to hear. • Describe graphics. • Keep audio and video accessibility in mind. • Announce slide numbers, titles, and transitions. Richard Steinberg – Creating Accessible Presentations

11. Considerations forOnline Presentations • No program for online presentations, collaborations, training, or conferencing meets my agency’s business needs and is fully accessible. • Too many variables with screen readers, operating systems, etc. • Browser window size, colors, and locked text size. • Sometimes programs need additional installations, and users can’t set up properly. • HTML is most accessible. Richard Steinberg – Creating Accessible Presentations

12. Think About Before: eLearning • Have both a presenter and a webinar administrator. • Top of screen, link to: • accessible instructions in guide, user’s manual, or help section • tech support contact information • “Skip to content” link Richard Steinberg – Creating Accessible Presentations

13. Think About Before: eLearning(continued) • Make sure all sections are accessible • Registration, chat panel, submit questions, videos, interactive, quizzes • Phone in or streaming audio • Be consistent and use structure (headings, subheadings, and lists) Richard Steinberg – Creating Accessible Presentations

14. Problems with PowerPoint • Tables can’t be made accessible (no row/column headers). • Charts can have problems depending on how you import. • Colors, animations, and transitions break screen readers. • Problems with blinking and tab order. • Depending on how delivered, problems with resizing text, window size, and contrast override. Richard Steinberg – Creating Accessible Presentations

15. PowerPoint Do’s • Use standard layouts. • Test color contrast. • Test/fix reading order. • Give each slide a unique title. • Insert graphics through icon menu. • Use alt text (also can group multiple objects and add alt text for group). Richard Steinberg – Creating Accessible Presentations

16. PowerPoint Do’s (continued) • Use notes pane to describe complex images, charts, tables, and audio. • Link to transcripts for audio and visual. • Add captions to video and add audio descriptions if necessary. • Use spell check (F7). • If you turn PowerPoint into a video, make a transcript. Richard Steinberg – Creating Accessible Presentations

17. PowerPoint Don’ts • Don’t make columns by separating text with tab key. • Don’t use text boxes. • Don’t draw tables. • Don’t set sounds to play automatically as slide appears. • Don’t use background images, textures, watermarks, animations, or transitions, especially in distributed files. Richard Steinberg – Creating Accessible Presentations

18. Once You Are Done: • Make sure all content is visible in Outline view. • Tab through slide sections to test reading order. • Use accessibility checker as general guidance. • Might have to convert to PDF and fix. Richard Steinberg – Creating Accessible Presentations

19. Checking Color Contrast Free Eyedropper Tool WebAIM Website http://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker http://www.paciellogroup.com/node/18?q=node/20 Richard Steinberg – Creating Accessible Presentations

20. Resources • HHSC Accessible PowerPoint Checklisthttp://architecture.hhsc.state.tx.us/myweb/accessibility/docs/checklists/AccessiblePowerPointDocumentsChecklist.doc • Federal PowerPoint checklist:http://www.hhs.gov/web/policies/checklistppt.html • Freedom Scientific: How to create PowerPoint 2007 & 2003 with JAWShttp://www.freedomscientific.com/Training/training-powerpoint.asp • List of Braille Producers in ZIP code beginning with “7”http://www.duxburysystems.com/search.asp?Search=braille&Zip=7 • Colour Contrast Analyserhttp://www.paciellogroup.com/node/18?q=node/20 Richard Steinberg – Creating Accessible Presentations

21. Thanks! DARS Accessibility Team accessibility@dars.state.tx.us Richard Steinberg – Creating Accessible Presentations