RE: PowerPoint "groups" alt text not seen by screen reader

Generally, A.T. can stumble when we group objects in any of our document
programs, especially when we want the A.T. to access the Alt-Text. You'll
get different results depending upon the A.T., the authoring program, and
what types of elements are in the group. 

 

Best Practice: 

*	Don't group elements (or be sure to ungroup them before finalizing
the file or exporting to PDF).
*	Put the Alt-text on just one element and artifact the others.

 

Granted, PowerPoint (and M.S. Word) don't yet allow us to artifact elements
in their programs, but if you're exporting to PDF, you can artifact them
there. Adobe InDesign does, however, allow the designer to artifact
individual elements in the layout file, and that is carried over into the
exported PDF. We need similar capability in M.S. Office programs.

 

--Bevi Chagnon

 

From: Brian Stevens [mailto:bstevens@ilsworld.com] 
Sent: Monday, August 28, 2017 5:04 PM
To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject: PowerPoint "groups" alt text not seen by screen reader

 

Hi,

 

I am making PowerPoint graphics accessible using alt text. Some of them are
charts that are grouped vector graphics created in PowerPoint, so I applied
alt text to the group. When I test with NVDA, it reads the text elements in
the group, but does not read the alt text. NVDA doesn't seem to read the alt
text on any "groups" in PowerPoint.

 

In order to work around this, I saved a rasterized PNG version of the
graphic to use instead, and added alt text to the PNG. NVDA reads this alt
text just fine. 

 

Is it okay for me to rasterize these charts? Is there a better way?

 

I'm worried because I've learned that rasterizing text has some readability
drawbacks when it comes to screen magnification. Is it worth the tradeoff?
(Rasterizing would also limit translatability...)

 

Also, does anyone have experiences with other screen readers not reading alt
text on PowerPoint groups?

 

Many thanks for your help,

 

Brian Stevens