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

[Berkowitz, Daniel J]

This may seem obvious -- or off topic -- but what about simply saving
the PPT documents as PDF's before throwing them up on Bb sites?

 
=========================
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 (eMail)
www.bu.edu/disability
 


>-----Original Message-----

>From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On

>Behalf Of Sean Keegan

>Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 2:03 PM

>To: 'Access Technologists in Higher Education Network'

>Subject: Re: [Athen] Accessible Office Export Plug-In That's NOT UIUC

>

>> A larger problem is getting widespread acceptance

>> among all the PowerPoint users on your campus.

>

>This has actually been the biggest challenge with many I communicate

with

>in

>our system with respect to changing the direction of publishing Web

>presentations on-line.  A few are interested in the open-source/free

tools

>(Meyer's S5 in particular), but the learning curve is not shallow (be

>careful not to delete one of those <divs> in the S5 code!) and

PowerPoint

>does provide a user interface that makes it easy to work with content.

I

>am

>not saying it is the *right* interface, just that it makes it easy for

>users.

>

>Unfortunately, I do not think the free tools are mature enough for the

>majority of users.  You have basic control over the "look" of the

>presentation as well as reorganizing content, but certainly not to the

>degree that is available in PPT.  Until someone at MS integrates an a

true

>standards-compliant (and accessible) Web export option to PPT, I think

we

>will be looking at purchasing different tools.  Believe me, I am in

support

>of the development of an open-source/free tool and I agree with Terry

that

>it is a solvable problem, but it will have to compete with current PPT

>application functionality to really gain acceptance and utilization.

>

>Take care,

>Sean

>

>

>

>-----Original Message-----

>From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On

>Behalf Of Terry Thompson

>Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 8:51 AM

>To: 'Access Technologists in Higher Education Network'

>Subject: Re: [Athen] Accessible Office Export Plug-In That's NOT UIUC

>

>I've tried a variety of PowerPoint conversion tools, as well as

>alternatives

>to PowerPoint. Some of my experiments are documented here:

>

>http://staff.washington.edu/tft/talks/powerpoint/index.html

>

>I agree that LecShare is a good option. However, if it's free/open

source

>you're after, I think the best strategy is for you to help promote and

>advance the standards-based alternatives to PowerPoint. Tools like W3C

>Slidy

>(and other W3C slide tools) and Eric Meyer's S5 allow you to produce

slides

>as a single standards-based, cross-platform, well-structured, scalable,

>portable XHTML file; then apply CSS and Javascript to it in order to

get

>the

>slideshow effect.

>

>As promising as this sounds, none of the standards-compliant slide

>presentations work well at this point with screen readers because of

the

>way

>their Javascript hijacks user keystrokes for slide control. I think

this is

>a solvable problem though, especially for someone with creativity,

>programming skills, and a strong interest (you still reading this,

Kevin?)

>A

>larger problem is getting widespread acceptance among all the

PowerPoint

>users on your campus. My son's in third grade and he's already being

tought

>to use Microsoft PowerPoint.

>

>Some links:

>

>W3C Slide Tools:

>http://www.w3.org/Talks/Tools/

>

>Eric Meyer's S5:

>http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/s5/

>

>I presented on this topic at Accessing Higher Ground, and will be doing

so

>again at CSUN:

>

>PowerPoint & Friends: Accessible Slides on the Web Wed 3/21/07,

2:50-3:50pm

>Hilton-Carmel

>

>Terry

>

>Terry Thompson

>Technology Specialist, DO-IT

>University of Washington

>tft at u.washington.edu

>206/221-4168

>http://www.washington.edu/doit

>

>

>

>

>

>

>> -----Original Message-----

>> From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org

>> [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On Behalf Of E.A. Draffan

>> Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 7:47 AM

>> To: 'Access Technologists in Higher Education Network'

>> Subject: Re: [Athen] Accessible Office Export Plug-In That's NOT UIUC

>>

>> PowerTalk (http://tinyurl.com/2xrkj4) is the only add on that

>> may help some folk listen to their PowerPoints that I know is

>> open source.  I have given it to a student who was concerned

>> about their stammer but it does not solve your problem and I

>> was trying to look for my old Illinois download but I am

>> not sure it would work with the latest versions of Office.

>> I have always

>> exported my outlines to text format but am now including more

>> and more Flash screen animations and will have to explain these.

>>

>> Best Wishes E.A.

>>

>> Mrs E.A. Draffan

>> Assistive Technologist

>> Mobile: 07976 289103

>> http://www.emptech.info/

>>

>> -----Original Message-----

>> From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org

>> [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On Behalf Of Sesock, Kevin A

>> Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 2:48 PM

>> To: Access Technologists in Higher Education Network

>> Subject: Re: [Athen] Accessible Office Export Plug-In That's NOT UIUC

>>

>> Thanks all, I'll give LecShare a try, but I'm still slightly

>> peeved that I'm going to have to find even more money

>> elsewhere just to be able to do this.

>>

>> I suppose it's the principle of the thing.

>>

>> Anyone know of any Open Source projects to accomplish this same

thing?

>> I've asked before elsewhere, but as that was quite some time

>> ago, I had hopedthat someone else would have gotten to work

>> on a solution.

>>

>> Anyway, thanks all.

>>

>> 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

>>

>> "Hail to the speaker, hail to the knower; joy to he who has

>> understood, delight to they who have listened." - Odin

>>

>> -----Original Message-----

>> From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org

>> [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On Behalf Of Stacy L. Smith

>> Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 8:35 AM

>> To: Access Technologists in Higher Education Network;

>> Berkowitz, Daniel J

>> Subject: Re: [Athen] Accessible Office Export Plug-In That's NOT UIUC

>>

>> I've been using LecShare and love it.  (www.lecshare.com)

>>

>> Doesn't Flash put the captions over the slide itself?  (In

>> other words, your captioning may be covering part of the text

>> of the slide.)  There was a presentation on PPT at the Higher

>> Ground Conference....should be on your CD if you purchased one.

>>

>> Stacy

>>

>> Quoting "Berkowitz, Daniel J" <djbrky at bu.edu>:

>>

>> > 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

>> >

>> >

>> > _______________________________________________

>> > Athen mailing list

>> > Athen at athenpro.org

>> > http://athenpro.org/mailman/listinfo/athen_athenpro.org

>> >

>> >

>>

>>

>> Stacy Smith

>> Adaptive Technology Specialist

>> Disability Support Services

>> 202 Holton Hall

>> Kansas State University

>> Manhattan, KS  66506

>> Phone:  785-532-6441

>> FAX:  785-532-6457

>> Email:  stacylee at ksu.edu

>>

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