Accessible presentations

WAI has published a guide to making presentations accessible. Everyone is now invited to comment.

Story by: Morten Tollefsen - 21.06.2010

"Make your presentations accessible to all" is a relatively short and comprehensive guide, and should at least serve as a checklist for creating and giving presentations.

The Norwegian Delta Center has made a similar guide to accessible meetings, courses and conferences.

Everyone is invited to comment

Accessible presentations are not so commonplace. Even the simple principle that you should say everything that is shown visually is not always the case! Blind people will not then get the necessary information.

There is a lot to think about: visual design, electronic versions, the use of a sign language interpreter ... The present draft has been sent out for comment , and everyone with experience of accessibility and presentations should review the proposal and contribute improvements.

My suggestions

 I've submitted a few suggestions. If you agree with them, then please submit similar proposals. More attention will be paid to consistent view points. 

Power:
Electronic versions of presentations which visually impaired can follow are helpful  at meetings and conferences. Many use computers to take notes. A problem when using a computer, however, is that it is often difficult to find power.

WCAG 2:
WCAG 2 is supposed to be technology independent. I feel that these guidelines could focus even more on advice about the design of presentations, especially those released in electronic formats. If the information is displayed using a projector then there may be different guidelines for font size, contrast, etc.

Visual Interpretation:
Subtitles (primarily for the hearing impaired) are mentioned quite clearly in the guidelines. Audio description of video content should also be a focus.

News archive