Re: Microsoft PowerPoint accessibility

Hi Bob, All,


At 14:35 13/08/2010, accessys@smart.net wrote:
>I much prefer OpenOffice.org  presentation, exactly the same output, (...)

One of the problems with OpenOffice.org Impress (and Calc) is that 
you can't set the language of a presentation (or spreadsheet in case 
of Calc) or spans of text inside it.
Microsoft PowerPoint allows you to set the language of slides and 
individual spans of text, but I find this feature rather unreliable: 
PowerPoint appears to "forget" or remove the language identification 
when you modify the content later. (I am talking about PowerPoint 
XP/2002; I haven't checked more recent versions because I mainly use 
OpenOffice.org.)


>and personally it seems even more accessible

Could you tell us which AT you use to access OpenOffice.org?
I have seen demos of OpenOffice with NVDA, and some people say it is 
more accessible with Window-Eyes than with JAWS.
(I also know someone who opens ODF documents with the ODF plugin for 
MS Office instead of using OpenOffice.org directly.)

Best regards,

Christophe


>Bob
>
>
>On Fri, 13 Aug 2010, Phil Spencer wrote:
>
>>Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2010 12:53:29 +0100
>>From: Phil Spencer <spencer_phil@hotmail.com>
>>To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
>>Subject: Microsoft PowerPoint accessibility
>>Resent-Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2010 11:54:04 +0000
>>Resent-From: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
>>
>>Hi,
>>
>>I'm interested in the general accessibility of Microsoft PowerPoint for
>>the creation and editing of presentations. Thus far the information I've
>>found on the web has been inconclusive, and I think the opinions of 
>>a wider group would be very useful.
>>
>>As part of a project I'm working on we're considering PowerPoint as 
>>part of a solution for the creation and editing of presentations. 
>>The rough idea is that there will be a web based library of 
>>pre-approved PowerPoint slides that users can package together to 
>>make a custom presentation, which they can further edit or 
>>customise offline using PowerPoint. However, if despite our best 
>>efforts to ensure the web based part of the solution is accessible 
>>it turns out that PowerPoint itself is a problem for some users 
>>then perhaps it's better that we consider some other options.
>>
>>Does anyone have any knowledge of how well PowerPoint works with 
>>different assisitive technologies?
>>
>>How "accessible" is PowerPoint considered to be in practice as an 
>>authoring tool?
>>
>>Or does anyone know of any resources discussing these issues?
>>
>>Any thoughts or suggestions would be very welcome.
>>
>>Many thanks,
>>
>>Phil Spencer.

-- 
Christophe Strobbe
K.U.Leuven - Dept. of Electrical Engineering - SCD
Research Group on Document Architectures
Kasteelpark Arenberg 10 bus 2442
B-3001 Leuven-Heverlee
BELGIUM
tel: +32 16 32 85 51
http://www.docarch.be/
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Received on Friday, 13 August 2010 15:26:09 UTC