Homework 1B: Create an Accessible Presentation¶

Deliverables¶

Accessible Google Slides - 50 points - due Tuesday, September 3, 11:59pm ET

Background¶

Many presentation tools, like Powerpoint and Google Slides, have Accessibility Checker functions. While these tools are helpful, they can not catch all the problems that pop up in presentations. For this, we offer a checklist that you can use to consider various aspects of slide and presentation design that can improve its accessibility to a variety of audiences.

ASSETS is the premier conference in ACM SIGCHI for presenting work related to accessibility for people with disabilities. The conference organizers have developed this handy presentation guide for conference talk authors to ensure that their entire audience can understand your talk. We include some of their guidelines below in the homework assignment. Hopefully (fingers crossed!) they don't conflict too much.

Some other guides include:

University of Washington Professor Richard Ladner's paper, "Making Your Conference Talk Accessible."
Kyle Rector's video on accessible presentations.
W3C guide on preparing slides and projected material.
Microsoft's web guide to making accessible PowerPoint presentations.
Microsoft's video guide to making accessible PowerPoint presentations.
University of Washington DO-IT Center's guide to presenting accessibly.

Getting Started¶

Choose one of the following presentations to make accessible.

Warning

These presentations have been sourced on the Internet. Some are short, some are long. Some contain technical content; some appear to be jokes. Whichever one you pick, as you edit them for accessibility, be careful to preserve your understanding of the authors' original intent. Whenever possible, do not change their message.

Instructions¶

Run through the following checklist and fix any issues that you see in the presentation.
1. Slides
  1. My slides have slide numbers.
  2. I minimized the number of slides down to the essential ones for explaining my message.
  3. I removed unnecessary distractions in the slide content (minimal in design).
  4. My slides have text on them that is readable by text-to-speech software (rather than text embedded as bitmap pictures).
  5. My talk shows an indication of progress as I move through it.
  6. I display information progressively (e.g., sequential highlighting).
  7. My slides highlight and emphasize key elements in text, graphics, and formulas.
2. Graphics
  1. My graphics have alternate text descriptions. (Google Slides, Microsoft Office).
  2. I use high contrast colors (> 4:1) for background/foreground.
  3. I use color-blind friendly color palettes (Make a palette).
  4. I minimize my use of animations.
  5. I ensure there is sufficient space between graphical items.
  6. I minimize the number of visuals on each slide.
  7. I use effective graphics with minimal design flourishes.
  8. I provide secondary notation by using visual analogues to represent emphasis and prosody (e.g., emoticons, symbols, or images).
  9. I provided visual analogues (e.g. diagrams, charts, notations) for any music/ sound.
3. Embedded Videos
  1. I added closed captioning to every embedded video.
  2. I provided written transcripts for every embedded video and audio clips.
  3. I added audio descriptions (e.g. described video) for every embedded video. Optional for HW1
  4. I used appropriate punctuation enabling screen readers and text-to-speech engines to work well.
  5. I embedded definitions for vocabulary and symbols within the text (e.g., via hyperlinks or footnotes).
  6. I followed accessibility standards (NIMAS, DAISY) when creating digital text.
4. Text
  1. I used large fonts (> 18 pt).
  2. I minimized the amount of text in each slide.
  3. I avoided using complex words when simpler ones would do.
  4. I ensured there is sufficient space between lines of text.
  5. I provided visual and/or emotional descriptions to help interpret music/sound.
  6. I embedded visual, non-linguistic support for vocabulary clarification (pictures, videos, etc.)
5. Recorded Audio
  1. I spoke every word that appears on the slide.
  2. I spoke loudly and clearly.
  3. I used terminology understandable to non-native speakers (e.g. avoid slang).
  4. I spoke at a moderate pace (around 100-150 words per minute).
  5. I provided a voice narration for embedded math equations (Math ML)
6. Recorded Presentation
  1. I verbally described all important images and charts.
  2. I verbally described all animations.
  3. I paused between slides.
  4. If I skipped a slide or an element on a slide, I said so out loud.
  5. I referred to the slide numbers in my presentation.
  6. To enable lip reading, I faced the audience (i.e. camera) and adjusted it to ensure my lips are clearly visible.
  7. I minimized my use of the mouse pointer.
  8. Whenever I used the mouse pointer in my talk, I described the action verbally.
Record yourself making the presentation.
1. Open the slides in the latest desktop version of Microsoft PowerPoint.
2. Choose the Record menu.
3. If you feel comfortable doing so, choose the Cameo option to insert a recording of you narrating the slides on the lower right hand corner of the slide deck.
4. Choose the Record button in the top right of the PowerPoint UI.
5. Once you have finished recording, choose File/Export... from the menu and export your video as an MP4.
6. Upload the video to YouTube; please make sure it's set to private.

Submission¶

There are two items to submit for this homework part.

Presentation
1. Copy the slide deck into your Google Drive.
2. Open the file in Google Slides.
3. Choose File/Share/Sharing with Others from the menu.
4. Change the Sharing permissions from General Access Restricted to General Access Carnegie Mellon University.
5. Press the Copy link button and submit that link to Gradescope.
Recorded Narration
1. Submit the private link to your uploaded YouTube video to Gradescope.