PD: Designing to Teach — Optimizing Presentation Slides and Handouts for Accessibility

Goal: make better slides and handouts for UDL and readability without distracting from the content

Co-presenters: Raymond Chan, Katelyn Phan, Matt Shih, River Suh

Presented at: Stanford Graduate School of Education STEP Conference 2017

Comments: I would change so many things about this 20-minute workshop, and in fact disagree with several of its points now, but I’d also add more bite-size experiential examples and making clearer take-home handouts. Maybe I’ll create a revision soon!

Download Printed Materials

• Summary sheet for best practices (not accessibility-friendly, ironically)

• Picture Sort:

  • Cards (docx)

  • Venn Diagram (jpg)

• Math/Science:

  • Task Card (pdf)

  • sample answer (pdf)

  • Examples of visually-dense 4th grade fraction problems (pdf)

• English:

  • Task Card (pdf)

  • sample answer (png)

Grading: Peer Presentation Feedback Form

My students stated the following advantages:

• useful: writing out details means it’s directly connected to what’s in the presentation, not just BS

• graded on completion-only: the point is to help the presenter, so making it a letter grade is stressful & might affect grading

• faster: don’t have to waste time pondering a number grade, just say what you noticed

• less biased: can’t grade based on relationships or friendships

• relevant: simulates giving detailed feedback to coworkers

• anonymously returned to student so you can be honest

Feel free to edit, copy, print, and share!