The Incredible, Accessible Presentation, Part 3 of 3

< Continued from Page 2

Sharing Accessible Presentations
A Few More Thoughts

Sharing Accessible Presentations

Increase your presentation's accessibility by making it available in multiple formats. This allows the reader to choose the format that is most comfortable for him or her. Always include a link to Download the viewers for the posted formats.

The Formats

PowerPoint - Save your file as PPT or PPS. Do not password protect the file. Screen Readers cannot access password-protected files. Include a link on the same page to either the PowerPoint 2003 Viewer or the PowerPoint 97 Viewer for PowerPoint 97, 2000, and 2002 (both links no longer exist). Include a link on the same page to PowerTalk.

Text-Only - Use the Accessible Web Publishing Wizard for Microsoft Office to create a text-only HTML page.

Or use PPT2HTML to create a text-only HTML page. PPT2HTML allows you greater flexibility in creating your web pages.

Or using PowerPoint, save the PowerPoint presentation as a TXT file. This will create the outline only. You'll need to modify the text file to include alternative text, etc.

PDF - Use Adobe Acrobat to create a PDF file. Do not password protect the file. Screen Readers cannot access password-protected files. Include a link on the same page to the Adobe Reader. Some alternative software for creating PDF files are listed on the How Do I Make A PDF? page of the PPT FAQ site. If you choose alternative software for creating PDF files, make sure it will convert your slide titles to bookmarks and your alt-text to accessible tags. If the software doesn't do these things for you, you need to " retrofit" the PDF file. See this Reflow The Contents Of Adobe PDF tutorial to learn more. You need to register one time to access the Adobe tutorials.

RTF - Save the Adobe PDF file as a Rich Text Format (RTF).

IE HTML/XML - Use the PowerPoint Web Wizard to create XML web pages. Go to the PowerPoint FAQ site. This Search Page lists a lot of information about PowerPoint's "Save As Web Page" feature. Be sure to check out the Optimize PowerPoint's HTML for Netscape Navigator page (PPT 2000 and higher). This page tells you how to create the most accessible version. It also lists the shortcomings.

WAI/508 Compliant HTML - HiSoftware Desktop Office Add-Ins will create either Section 508 or WAI Fully Compliant Web pages from a PowerPoint presentation. Some knowledge of HTML code is required.

Captioned Multimedia - For the truest representation of your presentation, consider one of the following:

• Camtasia
• Impatica
• PowerPoint to Video Tutorial

Remember to close caption multimedia files and post viewers to match the media format. For example, post links to Real Player, Windows Media Player, QuickTime, etc. for viewing the different multimedia files.

Microsoft Agents (Talking Characters) - And for a fun twist, consider using VoxProxy. With VoxProxy, you easily program walking, talking, dancing, prancing characters to give your presentations for you.

The Delivery Methods

Web - Posting files to the web is the easiest method of widely distributing your presentation in multiple formats. On your web page, enter the name of your presentation and clearly identify the links to the different formats. Don't forget to include links to all the appropriate viewers.

CD - CDs present more of a challenge for multiple formats. One method is to create an autorun CD and include the additional formats on the CD as well. You can also create a menu in HTML with links to all the formats. This would be the most accessible method.

Email - When sharing files through email, it's best if you know your recipient's preferences. Send only the format that works best for your recipient. Or you can be even kinder and email the file links instead of the files themselves.