On this page: Background and Purpose | What We Do | Applets and Plug-ins | Guidelines and Standards

Multimedia Presentations (MS PowerPoint)

Background and Purpose

Although rare, it is possible to embed audio and/or video files into a PDF document.  Among the considerations to keep in mind, when multimedia is embedded, are things like captioning for those files and assuring that the captioning is synchronized with the presentation of the content.

In addition, any media player used to present the multimedia content needs to be accessible as well.

What We Do

CommonLook Office checks for the presence of multimedia presentations in the PowerPoint. It does not, however, check movie or other files for captions or other accessibility features. If multimedia presentations are found, the user is alerted.

Important Note:  CommonLook Office does not copy multimedia objects to the PDF. Users who wish to include movies and other content in the PDF must first ensure these resources comply with applicable accessibility regulations for the content (for example, WCAG 2.0), and then add the multimedia content to the PDF.  As a final step, the Tags tree in the PDF needs to be edited with the correct corresponding tags.

Applets and Plug-ins

From U.S. Section 508 (2001) – checkpoint (m) – “When a web page requires that an applet, plug-in or other application be present on the client system to interpret page content, the page must provide a link to a plug-in or applet that complies with §1194.21(a) through (l).”

This checkpoint is not applicable because CommonLook Office does not include multimedia files in the output PDF.  If multimedia files are to be included in a PDF document, and if these files require the use of a “player” to access content, then the player must also be in compliance with accessibility guidelines.