PowerPoint- Distribution on Web
On the web, PowerPoint files can be distributed in many ways:
- Save native PowerPoint file and post the file to the web. This requires the user have access to PowerPoint software or PowerPoint Viewer. The viewer allows the user to view and print the presentation and is mostly limited to be used with Internet Explorer.
- Publish PowerPoint as HTML file . PowerPoint files do not convert gracefully into HTML and is not very accessible to screen readers. Internet Explorer renders the page in a confusing frame layout without usable alt text for images. Other browsers render each slide as a single graphic, without any "alt text".
- Save as a tagged PDF file . PDF files are accessible as long as the original presentation has been created using accessible methods
- Use third party tools to save as accessible PowerPoint HTML slides. Examples of tools:
- Web Accessibility Wizard is a tool developed by University of Illinios Champaign/ Urbana that converts and publishes Microsoft Office documents into accessible and standards compliant web documents. It installs as an extention of Office applcations.
- LecShare is a cross-platform application that helps convert PowerPoint slides into accessible Web based presentation. The university has a site license for this product.
- LecShare Pro helps to create accessible, narrated presentations from Microsoft PowerPoint
- PPT2HTML is a PowerPoint-to-HTML conversion tool that helps create accessible slides. It has batch conversion capability .
Other Options for Creating Accessible Presentations
On the Web, PowerPoint's functionality can be effectively replicated in HTML and is a way to ensure an truly accessible presentation. Using combination of CSS, XHTML and JavaScripts, the HTML presentation can incorporate visual effects, robust content, flow and animation to emulate a PowerPoint slides. Scine this is standards based it can be designed to be fully transparent to display device, platform, browser and assistive technology.
- Hand code or use authoring tool to create HTML pages, each representing a slide
- S5 by Eric Meyer is a standards-based solution that uses CSS, JavaScripts and XHTML to provide the look-see-feel of a slide show. The presentation is a single XHTML file and degrades gracefully into a single page in absence of CSS and or JavaScript . S5 consist of is a set of XHTML templates, style sheets and JavaScripts and can be integrated into any authoring tool to create the slides.
- CourseGenie is an HTML conversion tool that installs as an extension of Microsoft Word. As it is used to convert Word documents into standards compliant and accessible HTML it can be used to create slide presentation. The university has a site license.
- Wimpypoint is a HTML authoring tool that can be used to create data-base driven presentations. It however lacks the some of the advanced features of PowerPoint slides
- The W3C Slidemaker uses PERL script to generate HTML+ CSS slides, While there is a learning curve associated with this free tool, it is widely used internally by the W3C staff and is a simple and effective Web presentation option.
- Slidey is a W3C XHTML slide generator, which includes many advanced features like SVG support, multiple backgrounds, sequential reveals within slides, and a hotkey-driven virtual table of contents.
- SlideML is an XML format for generating slide presentations. Promising but not quite ready for prime time.
- PerlPoint is a presentation solution written in PERL and includes the ability to export to HTML, XHTML/XML/S5, and (interestingly) LaTEX.
Powertalk is a free program that automatically speaks any presentation or slide show running in Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows. It is a great tool to test PowerPoint slides for accessibility.
