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Design For All: Powerpoint 2007: How To Make Your Powerpoints Accessible
Design For All: Powerpoint 2007: How To Make Your Powerpoints Accessible
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Contents
How to make your PowerPoints accessible 1
Contents 2
Step 1. Slide creation basic points 3
1.1 Use a slide layout from one of the Office Themes 3
1.2 Choose an easy to read Font Size and Font 4
1.3 Choose your colours carefully 4
1.4 Emphasising text 5
1. 5 Align text to the left and avoid justifying 5
Step 2: Handling Images, videos and multi-media 6
2.1 Locate images on their own or on the right hand side of text 6
2.2 Ensure the image or video is explained in the slide or in the slide notes 6
2.3 Dont insert text as an image, or put text over images 6
2.4 Make sure multi-media files can be located 7
Step 3: Slide Content 7
Step 4: Use the Notes field 7
Step 5: Using Hyperlinks 7
5.1 Linking within a PowerPoint 7
5.2 Linking to Documents 8
5.2.2 Linking externally 8
Step 6: Slide transitions and animations 9
6.1 Adding a sound to slide transitions 9
6.2 Adding animations 9
Check List 10
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Using an Office Themes produces consistent heading sizes and allows the
presentation to be exported, retaining your text, and the headings formatting. This
makes it easier to navigate and use.
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Choose any Office Themes that suits your content, but do NOT use Blank.
Choose a font without serifs. Serifs are the little tails attached to end of a
character that confuse partially sighted readers by disguising the shape of the
character (Times New Roman is a serif font this is an example of Times New
Roman do not use this font). The default font in PowerPoint 2007 is Calibri
which is a sans serif font which is easy to read.
Example:
This is Times New Roman, this is a serif font and is not easy to read
Choose a good contrast between text and background to ensure the text can
be easily read. Avoid pale colours on coloured backgrounds or colours which
are indistinguishable by people with colour blindness (e.g. red on green). Dark
blue text on a cream background is easy to read.
If the background colour is dark and the text colour is pale then making the
text bold can increase the depth of the text and make it easier to read.
Try printing in greyscale, if the result is hard to read then the chances are
some people will find the coloured version hard to read.
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Text colours can vary from slide to slide, although consistency can aid
accessibility.
Example:
These are examples of pale colours on coloured backgrounds. These colours are
hard to read.
This would not be visible to someone with red/green colour blindness (the most
common)The text to the left would not be visible to someone with red/green colour
blindness
Avoid using all capitals, underline or italics for emphasis. Capitals, underline
and italics disguise the shape of the character:
Examples
CAPS ARE HARD TO READ BECAUSE the text is all the same height in lower
case some characters (g for example) have loops hanging below the line of text, and
some characters are raised above the line of text (h for example) which help visually
impaired people to recognise words.
Underline because any tails below the line are hidden
italics because the characters run together.
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2.1 Locate images on their own or on the right hand side of text
2.2 Ensure the image or video is explained in the slide or in the slide
notes
Dont put text over the top of an image, or make text an image, or make it
anything other than horizontal as this cannot be read by blind or dyslexic students
using screen readers.
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Any videos or other multimedia content that you add to your presentation will
not automatically move with you presentation for example if you decide to put
your presentation onto the BLE or e-mail it to a student. Put the multimedia
files in a location that the students can access before you create the links to it
in your presentation.
Slides are used for a slide show, which is accompanied by dialogue from the
presenter. Keep the slide content concise and the use the notes field (see
below) to expand your ideas.
Use bullet points and lists where possible and ensure each point finishes with
punctuation e.g. a full stop (this makes a text reader pause after each point).
Limit the content to the amount you could fit on a post card.
Use the minimum 24 point font size and this will limit the amount you can fit
onto each slide.
To expand and clarify content. This can help students who need to read
PowerPoints online in advance of a lecture, or who have difficulty taking notes
during lectures.
To provide additional examples and explanation without over crowding the
slide.
To describe any visual content on a slide that cannot be seen by a visually
impaired person. Use the notes to explain/describe a graph or diagram, but
dont describe eye candy that doesnt impart meaning.
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web pages or Word documents, or they can link internally to another page in the
current PowerPoint.
Stop the learner losing interest before they get to the section they are
interested in.
Allow the learner to easily find and re-read sections e.g. for revision
Reduce scrolling
Break the presentation into coherent sections which aids understanding of the
content
Links to slides at the start of new sections within the PowerPoint presentation.
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Barbara Denton
Assistive Technology Support, IT Services
Tel 0207 079 0717
b.denton@bbk.ac.uk
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Check List
Check?
Done
Use an Office Theme for slide layout
Font size 24 point or greater
Font style without serif e.g. Arial or Calibri
Good colour contrast
No large blocks of all capital letters, underline or
italics
Text is left aligned
Images/tables/graphs are on their own on the slide
or are to the right of text
Images/videos/graphs are explained in the slide
notes
No text over images or patterned backgrounds
Multimedia files are located where the students can
get to them
Slide content: concise slide content that would fit on
a post card
Slide content: bullet points with full stops used
where relevant
Notes field used to expand content/provide
additional examples/describe images and diagrams
Internal hyperlinks used where relevant to aid
navigation
External hyperlinks to docs/files and videos point to
a web location where the student can access them
Sound added to slide transitions for students with
visual impairments
Animations added to make text points appear one at
a time (but use appear) if desired
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