PowerPoint

There are two ways to create accessible PowerPoint documents: 1) to save PowerPoint files as PDF documents, and 2) to turn them into html pages.

As PDF Documents

Like Word documents saved to PDF, descriptive text can be added to images, diagrams, and charts using the Format >Picture (or object) > Web command. See description for marking up Microsoft Word documents. Summary text and headers cannot be added to tables.

PowerPoint does not have the "Style" tags available in Word (such as Titles and Headings).

As html Pages

The other approach is to save documents so they can be viewed on the web. PowerPoint 2000 and XP have a built-in function for saving slides as web pages. Unfortunately, the code that is generated (XML) is readable only by Microsoft Explorer.

A better alternative is to download the Microsoft PowerPoint WWW Accessibility Wizard (www.rehab.uiuc.edu/ppt/install.html) from the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign. The Wizard is automatically installed to the PowerPoint application under File and as an item on the main feature bar. The Wizard produces html code that can be read by all web browsers; provides step by step conversion of images, tables, diagrams and charts; and creates user-friendly navigation.

In addition, the Wizard allows users to choose Text-Only, Mostly Text and Graphical presentation styles. Support for automatic conversion of Excel charts and PowerPoint tables is underway.

More information can be found on the Microsoft PowerPoint Accessibility Wizard website (www.rehab.uiuc.edu/ppt/index.html)

Adaptive Technology

IBM Home Page Reader does not recognize table and image code generated by PowerPoint. It does recognize the html code generated by the UI PowerPoint Accessibility Wizard. JAWS reads image and chart descriptions contained in PDF files, and its specialized navigation features work in tables.