Here is a quick way to automatically generate a transcript for your audio files when using Windows and Microsoft Office (As of May 2024).

1. Save the media from PowerPoint
   1. In PowerPoint, right click on the audio file and select Save Media as… from the context menu.
   2. Choose a location and provide a descriptive name for the audio so you can find it again.
2. Open Word and transcribe
   1. Select the Home tab.
   2. Select the Dictate dropdown (down-pointing arrow at the bottom of the button).
   3. Select Transcribe.
   4. Select the language (English (Canada) in most cases and select Upload audio.
   5. Find the audio file you saved above and select Open. You will see a progress indicator while the audio is being transcribed.
   6. When finished,
      • You can edit the speaker by clicking on the section in the Transcript pane and selecting the Edit transcript section button (pencil); change the Speaker{n} and select Change all Speaker{n} checkbox if you want to change all.
      • You can edit the text of the transcript by clicking on the section in the Transcribe pane and selecting the Edit transcript section button (pencil).
      • Select the Cancel button (X) to cancel changes or Confirm button to save changes to the section.
      • When finished editing sections, select Add to document button and select whether or not to include speakers, timestamps, both or just plain text when added to the document.
   7. You can save the Word document to save the transcript or copy and paste the text into another document.

Maybe I wasn’t paying much attention before but few weeks ago, I noticed a Hershey Chocolate Bar commerical using sign language. I think we need more of these type of commercial. It certainly warm up my heart when I saw the short 14 second but powerful commercial.

Hershey’s Chocolate Bar

We all know we need to be descriptive with images, graphic and captioning. We have also seen in many presentations when presentors describe themselves at the beginning of the presentation. Apply the same idea, we can also be more descriptive in a classroom/online setting, when giving lecture to students. Something to consider next time you are teaching students in a classroom or online.

Vendors are adding the ability to add captions (live) / subtitles, to convert speech to text and display the text, during a live presentation. Subtitles also provide an opportunity to display the text in a language different from the spoken language. Live captions and subtitles are different from closed captions which provide speech to text for recorded presentations. In all cases, it is a step in the right direction for accessibility.

Why use captions or subtitles?

Captions for real-time speech to text provide people who are deaf or hard of hearing with an opportunity to see a live presentation and to have the same access to the auditory information as a hearing person. Subtitles further provide an opportunity to display the text in a language different from the spoken language.

Captioning a PowerPoint presentation

Although you can subtitle presentations using the PowerPoint desktop application and MS Office 365 PowerPoint Online (PowerPoint for the web) an older version of PowerPoint desktop may be installed on the podium that does not support it. Save the presentation in Microsoft 365 online before going to the lab/class to use subtitles if not supported by the desktop application.

You will need a microphone to capture voice and it is recommended to connect it to the computer before you start the presentation.

Using PowerPoint Live

If you are using a podium computer store your presentation in Microsoft 365 online before your presentation:

• Connect the microphone to the podium
• Log in to Office 365 (https://www.office.com)
• Open the presentation
• Check the microphone setup in PowerPoint (with the presentation open):
  • Select Slide ShowSelect the Present Live button
  • Select Audio Settings
  • In the Audio Settings check to see that the microphone you connected is listed

• Select to use Subtitles
  • Select the checkbox Use Subtitles
  • Under Spoken Language choose the language you speak in
  • Under Subtitle Language choose the language to use for the displayed captions
  • Select where you want the subtitles to appear

• Present your presentation live
  • Select the Present button
  • Select Present Live
  • Select the Show Slides button to begin the presentation.

As you start speaking you will see the subtitles/captions. There may be a lag between when you speak and when you see the captions.

Note: The Present Live option enables others to connect to the presentation over the internet which is an added benefit.

Using PowerPoint application on the desktop

It depends on the version of PowerPoint installed on the computer, if you don’t see subtitle options, the version you are using doesn’t support it.

• Connect the microphone to the podium
• Open the presentation
• Select Slide Show. All of the settings are conveniently located on the ribbon bar.
• Select Always Use Subtitles
• Check the microphone setup in PowerPoint
  • Select Subtitle Settings
  • Select Microphone and ensure that a checkmark appears beside the name of the microphone you are using
• Under Spoken Language choose the language you speak in
• Under Subtitle Language choose the language to use for the displayed captions
• Select where you want the subtitles to appear

Begin your presentation From Beginning or From Current Slide. As you start speaking you will see the subtitles/captions. There may be a lag between when you speak and when you see the captions.

I was using an app (that I use daily) on my phone with my left hand the other day and noticing how inconvent it is for left-handed people.

The main buttons are way over on the right hand side which are really hard to reach. After googling, it seems this is a common usability issue for many left-handed people. Perhaps this is something we need to consider while designing website/apps.

Resources:

Accessibility in Web Design for Lefty

Usability for Left Handed People

How to add region on a web page:

It is important to define regions within a content page to help users using assistive technology to navigate the page more easily.

For example, you can use a <main> tag to indicate the main content area of a page.

Resources:

W3C on Page Region

WCAG Bypass Blocks SC 2.4.1

Adding landmarks/regions to a page

A good education toy for learning Braille:

Resources:

Braille Literacy Canada

Learning ASL on your own:

ASL University

LifePrint

Some good videos to watch:

JavaScript Popups are being used often in applications and there is often questions about its compliance with accessibility. Recently I did a bit of research on this for some updated information to share below.

Here are some of the key things to consider when using JavaScript Popups:

• Ensure it can be navigated with keyboard only, and the user will be able to access all the fields/buttons/links/functionalities within the popup window.
• When there is a popup window, ensure the page behind/under the popup is blocked until the popup is closed. This is to ensure user will be navigating only on the popup window to avoid confusing especially if they are using keyboard to navigate. (Example provided below)
• Users could have JavaScript disabled on their browsers for various reasons. If so, they will not be able to open popup or any JavaScript functions. (I think for us, we are operating under the assumption that this is a special case and deal with it case by case if needed. As we need to use JavaScript for many of our functionalities but we do make efforts to ensure it’s more accessible.)

You may be able to hear NVDA describing the popup, but there are other things to consider as well for accessibility and usability as mentioned above.

Imagine this scenario:

I am blind, I browse to a page only using my keyboard to tab through each link/button, then I opened up a popup windows which is a form to fill out information. (I cannot tell that this is a popup form as I cannot see. I cannot see anything, text or color. I can only hear what screen reading is telling me)

Then, I continue to tab my keyboard just to “hear” what else is there. If the page behind the popup is still available, I continue to tab through, I likely wouldn’t know I already left the popup window.

As a sighted user, it’s easy to paint the picture in my head, because I have been seeing popup forms and used them. As a blind user, it’s very different for them.

Here are some sample sites you can try:

1. Inaccessible JavaScript Popups Example 1

To test:

Click on Open Form button on the bottom right hand corner

Start tabbing within that Login popup form, then you should notice you will be tabbing back to the address bar and so on, back on the page.

2. Inaccessible JavaScript Popups Example 2

I believe this also explain most of reasons why we started using more jQuery Modal popup as it forces the user to stay on the popup until they finish ‘actions’ on the popup or close it.  There are also ARIA tags we can use to ensure the modal popup is more accessible for screen reader users.

During a group meeting this week, I discovered the live captioning feature in Microsoft Teams. I was curious and I turned on the feature to see how good the live captions is. I was pretty impressed with it, considering it was a bigger group meeting with multiple people talking. There were few words that were not correct but I would say 95% accurate.

If you haven’t tried it out yet, give it a shot. I think I will be using it a lot more! You can take a look of how to use live captions in Microsoft Teams.