How Accessible is a Google Imbedded Slide?

[penny_christens]

Hi All,
As my district ramps up building content for a virtual academy, I am interested in the accessibility of embedded Google Slides/Docs and Office PowerPoints. 

What experiences are out there with the accessibility of these with screenr eaders?

[mtuten]

In my last attempt to test the accessibility of such embedded PowerPoints and Google Slides--which was a couple of years ago--the outcomes weren't great regardless of whether the embed code was from MS Office, Google, Box, or the Canvas Preview. Results ranged from slides being unreadable to slides and or content being read in duplicate or out of order. Providing a link to where the file is stored on the web and/or a means to download might be the best way to provide equal access. Of course, the accessibility of the interface in which it is stored will impact the accessibility of the link provision option.

[phillip_mills]

Hi @penny_christens,

That really depends on how well the web rendered versions of each presentation display in an iframe.

I don't have any experience in using Google slides in Canvas so I can't comment on it. Hopefully it's better than PowerPoint...

My only experience of using embedded PowerPoint files in Canvas with NVDA was very poor, even though the file passes the automated Accessibility testing tool in MS PowerPoint.

Accessing the presentation in an iframe would result in NVDA reading the word "Clickable" five times before getting to any actual content (I didn't bother checking, but it appears that the five bullet points on the page were made clickable but didn't contain content and weren't interactive, which would fail WCAG). It also said some of the text was formatted using blockquotes, which it wasn't!

In contrast the file worked pretty well when I viewed it in the PowerPoint desktop app - it correctly identified the bullet points and read the text fairly well. I'd look at providing a download link for a PowerPoint file for students that use screen readers if it was me.

I hope this helps, even if it's not very encouraging!

Kind regards,

Phil