I got schooled today, and I'm happy to have learned a new viewpoint. Maybe this will be new to you as well.
I was in a rehearsal with a guest presenter for an upcoming webinar. We were going through a draft version of the presentation slides and came across a typical bullet point slide:
- POINT ONE.
- Sub-point A.
- Sub-point B.
- Sub-point C.
- POINT TWO.
- Sub-point A.
- Sub-point B.
I gently pointed out that the periods at the end of each line weren't really necessary or appropriate, since they didn't represent full sentences.
My guest presenter gently countered that the formatting was entirely intentional. If a sight-impaired attendee uses an automated text-to-speech application to review the PowerPoint slides, bullet points end up being recited as run-on verbiage. The punctuation is necessary in order to break the flow and have an audio indication that each point is a separate item.
Now, it is unlikely that a webinar attendee would rely on an automated text-to-speech application, because it would conflict with the presenter's own narration. But our presenter wanted the slides to be available as a handout, which might include sight-impaired recipients. Rather than making two versions of the slide deck - one for use in the session and one for use as a handout, she chose to just include the punctuated version for presentation use.
I was humbled. Not only was I unaware of this limitation of text-to-speech software, but I had never even considered that design perspective. I did some searching and found a helpful web page with many suggestions to make writing work more effectively for TTS applications. I include it here as a reference for you:
https://bdatech.org/what-technology/text-to-speech/accessible-formats/writing-for-tts/
In a perfect world, we would make a version of presentation materials that are optimally designed for a sighted audience listening to a narrator, along with a second set of hardcopy materials that can be referenced by a larger and more physically diverse audience. But there are practical considerations for how much time and effort presenters can dedicate to their materials. If you can only make one version, why not make it accessible to everyone?
