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

[Terry Thompson]

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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