[BlindMath] Tips on presenting slides

Wed Oct 9 17:48:29 UTC 2019

Using Pandoc to create slides for HTML Slidy works well for me. The source format is Pandoc Markdown. You'll still need to use a pass-through key, but HTML Slidy, at least, supports screen readers well in my experience.

I haven't tried any of the other slide delivery options available in Pandoc. Note also that you can include the --self-contained option on the Pandoc command line to ensure that the CSS and JavaScript are integrated into the generated HTML file. Thus, you shouldn't need a working Internet connection when you're giving the presentation.

As a final note, I haven't tried this with mathematical material. However, Pandoc supports generation of MathML from TeX-like mathematical expressions given in the Markdown input.

-----Original Message-----
From: BlindMath <blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Alastair Irving via BlindMath
Sent: Wednesday, October 9, 2019 1:41 PM
To: Robin Williams via BlindMath <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Alastair Irving <alastair.j.irving at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [BlindMath] Tips on presenting slides

Robin

I've just tested a sample ioslides presentation I found online. It appears that using NVDA with chrome you still have to do a pass-key through (nvda+f2) but the virtual buffer is then refreshed.  In fact, I also tried Jaws 17 and the buffer also seemed to be refreshing.  With either screenreader it presumably wouldn't be too hard to script this to a single key press.

Have you tried compiling your R Markdown to PDF?  I still use PDFs produced from Beamer, you can ctrl+page up/down to move between the slides.  You won't be able to read mathematical content but the text might read well enough.

I've not found a perfect solution to managing notes to help during the presentation.  My usual approach is to make sure all my slides have helpful titles and first sentences, as I can usually read those when switching to the next slide.  The ideal solution might be to have notes accessible in some sort of invisible buffer that a screenreader can access.

Best wishes

Alastair

On 09/10/2019 14:55, Robin Williams via BlindMath wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I am after any tips blind people may have on presenting scientific materials using slides.
>
> Using R Markdown, I am able to produce my presentations in various formats. One of these is Powerpoint, but my general reluctance to go near MS Office, and the extra work that can be required to resize my slides, means I have settled on ioslides for now. This format renders the slides in an HTML document, and allows one to have additional control on the size of text and other appearance options directly from the R Markdown file, similar to LaTeX. These are all appealing features to me. However, when I open my presentation in my preferred web browser (Chrome), I need to press JAWS KEY + 3 to pass the left and right arrow keystroke (which changes the slide) through to the browser. However, the JAWS virtual buffer doesn't refresh, despite the slide changing on the screen. Has anyone tried a similar thing with any other screenreaders?
>
> I am particularly interested to know what methods people use to take notes to assist in giving their presentations. I am happy to memorise a 20 minute presentation, but anything longer starts to take up an unreasonable amount of time and cognitive energy. My current solution is to use hard copy Braille, with a couple of bullet points for each slide. Do people have any alternative suggestions, and/or tips on how to streamline the process of giving scientific presentations?
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