Strategy
Tech Standards: Accessing Keynote Presentations with VoiceOver
Step-by-step instructions on how to access a Keynote presentation geared for Preschoolers and early elementary students.
Young students are being introduced to technology way before kindergarten. Students who are blind and low vision often access teacher-created books and materials created using presentation applications such as PowerPoints, Keynotes and Google Slides. This post is one in a series of posts about accessible Keynote presentations on an iPad running VoiceOver geared for emerging readers and early readers. Toddlers and preschoolers are motivated by books about themselves, their family, their school, and familiar things. TVIs and family members are creating accessible digital books for these very young students who can listen to the books; and, when paired with a braille display, these students can also be exposed to and/or read the books in braille. The ability to access slide presentations is also a prerequisite tech skill for kindergarten students and above.
Note: Mainstream National Technology Standards dictate that students are introduced to creating simple presentations in kindergarten or first grade with mastery of advanced slide presentation skills by the end of third grade. Before the student is introduced to creating presentations, the student should be familiar with accessing presentations.
Accessing Keynote Presentations with VoiceOver
- Open Keynote
-
Right swipe or drag to find the desired book.
- Select desired book with a double tap or split tap.
-
Play Keynote: Swipe right or drag across the tool bar at the top of the screen to Play button.
- Select with a double tap or split tap.
- Listen to title page: Swipe right.
- Turn page: Three-finger swipe left.
Note: Depending on the slide, the slide may read the entire page, including the image description. (Example: VoiceOver reads the entire slide in the video tutorial with the Horizontal Image with text underneath.) Other slides in the same theme deck may require a right swipe to move from the text to the image description.
Required Gestures to Open the Book
- Swipe right and double tap, or
- Drag and split tap
Required Gestures within the Book
- Right swipe (move to next item – if using a slide that requires navigating to the image)
- Three-finger swipe left (turn page)
Braille Display Commands
If a student has a paired braille display and is reading the book in braille, you can mute VoiceOver speech if desired and the student reads the braille, or the student can listen to VoiceOver read the text while following along on the braille display.
Note: Many young students struggle to physically make gestures. Many of these students find that the joystick commands and/or braille display commands are easier to perform.
- Mute VoiceOver speech: M Chord (dots 1+3+4+space)
- Move to the next item: Joystick right or dot 4+space (equivalent to right swipe)
- Turn the page: O Chord (dots 1+3+5+space; equivalent to three-finger swipe left)
- Select an item: Joystick in or dots 3+6+space (equivalent to double tap)
Bluetooth Keyboard Commands
For students who are learning to navigate with a Bluetooth keyboard or for students who struggle making the physical gestures, the Bluetooth keyboard commands may be more efficient.
- Move to the next item: Right arrow (equivalent to right swipe)
- Turn the page: Option+right arrow (equivalent to three-finger swipe left)
- Select an item: Up arrow+down arrow (equivalent to double tap)
The video tutorial below demonstrates how to access a simple Keynote presentation/book geared for emerging or early readers.
Resources
- Tech Standards: Tech Standards: Adding Image Descriptions to iOS Photos
- Tech Standards: Keynote Presentations with VoiceOver Activity Part 1
- Tech Standards: Creating a Keynote Presentation Part 2
- PowerPoint Lesson Plan for Elementary Students
- Technology lesson: Excel and PowerPoint (amazing Animal PowerPoint Activity)
- Tech lesson Week #1: (PowerPoint, Google Slides, Keynote)
- Apple Keynote Instructions (VoiceOver)
- Mainstream Technology Standards Scope and Sequence
By Diane Brauner
