[Athen] Accessible Office Export Plug-In That's NOT UIUC

[Berkowitz, Daniel J]

I'll echo Sean. I saw a demo of LecShare at Accessing Higher Ground and picked up a copy on the spot. Given the price it was worth getting a copy to try out. I have used it to create accessible version of PPT's for many presentations - including this one:
http://www.colorado.edu/atconference/etext_production.htm <http://www.colorado.edu/atconference/etext_production.htm> 
 
It's a good basic program that does what it promises.
 
 
 
 
========================= 
Daniel Berkowitz - Assistant Director 
Boston University Office of Disability Services 
19 Deerfield Street, 2nd floor 
Boston, MA 02215 
  
(617) 353-3658 (office) 
(617) 353-9646 (fax) 
djbrky at bu.edu <mailto:djbrky at bu.edu>  (eMail) 
www.bu.edu/disability 

________________________________

From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org on behalf of Sean Keegan
Sent: Thu 2/8/2007 12:46 PM
To: 'Access Technologists in Higher Education Network'
Subject: Re: [Athen] Accessible Office Export Plug-In That's NOT UIUC


Hi Kevin,
 
You may want to check out LecShare.  Similar in concept (different in technical functionality), LecShare can take a PPT file and convert it to several different accessible formats.  Their higher end product LecShare Pro can also support the addition of voice media to slides (and do some basic automated captioning).  Site is:  http://www.lecshare.com
 
Take a look at the trial version - it is fully functioning and just embeds a LecShare watermark on each exported format so that you do not use the trial version for prime time.  Works for Macs and PCs, so that is a nice feature.  Currently it only works with PowerPoint files, so if you are looking for Word or Excel support, then it is the Office Export Wizard (aka Accessible Web Publishing Wizard).
 
I have also had a number of faculty approach me regarding the use of Camtasia to deliver PPT content (obviously a more expensive solution).  The result is just a Flash video of the presentation with a voice-over narration (this is somewhat similar to one of the exports of LecShare Pro also does).  The current version of Camtasia also provides a tool for captioning the presentation.  It does appear to have many customization options, but I am looking into this a bit more.  Probably not exactly what you are looking for, but it is something that more faculty appear to be doing.
 
Take care,
Sean


________________________________

From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On Behalf Of Sesock, Kevin A
Sent: Thursday, February 08, 2007 9:10 AM
To: Access Technologists in Higher Education Network
Subject: [Athen] Accessible Office Export Plug-In That's NOT UIUC


There are a few who have been witness to my complaints about the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's Office Export Wizard plug-in. I'm not going to get into that now (if anyone is interested, mail me for a sample tirade off-list), but I do need a good alternative to convert Powerpoint and other Office documents to an accessible HTML alternative.
 
Up until 1.06, the Illinois tool was free and didn't nag or annoy, and if anyone has that version, that would be helpful (I have lost my copy), otherwise, anyone have other recommendations?
 
Kevin A. Sesock, A+, Net+, CNA, MCSA
Assistive Technology Specialist
Student Disability Services
Division of Student Affairs
Oklahoma State University
 
http://access.it.okstate.edu <http://access.it.okstate.edu/> 
 
"Hail to the speaker, hail to the knower; joy to he who has understood, delight to they who have listened." - Odin