Student Disability Resource Center

Creating Accessible PowerPoint Documents

PowerPoint has many features built-in that help people with different abilities to read and author presentations. PowerPoint presentations are commonly used in presentations and training. Ensuring your PowerPoint presentation is accessible means that your entire audience is able to fully engage with, and learn from, the content you are creating. Creating accessible presentations can accomplished by implementing a few guidelines.

Create Accessible Slides

Use one of the accessible PowerPoint templates to make sure that your slide design, colors, contrast, and fonts are accessible for all audiences. They are also designed so that screen readers can more easily read the slide content.

Title Each Slide

One simple step towards inclusivity is having a unique, descriptive title on each slide, even if it isn't visible. A person with a visual disability that uses a screen reader relies on the slide titles to know which slide is which.

Reading Order

Some people with visual disabilities use a screen reader to read the information on the slide. When you create slides, putting the objects in a logical reading order is crucial for screen reader users to understand the slide.

Use the Accessibility Checker and the Reading Order pane to set the order in which the screen readers read the slide contents. When the screen reader reads the slide, it reads the objects in the order they are listed in the Reading Order pane.

With the presentation open, select the "Home" ribbon, click "Arrange" and choose "Selection Pane." This Selection Pane shows all the objects on a slide and the order they will be read in by a screen reader. Pay close attention and remember that in PowerPoint objects are read by a screen reader beginning with the bottom list item first and the first list item last. Correct any out of place items by clicking and dragging them to their correct reading order spot.

Note, Selection Pane and Reading Order are 2 different ways to order your content. If you are using a Mac, you will only have access to the Selection Pane option. If you are using a Windows machine, there is an option for Reading Order. With Reading Order, the objects on the slide will appear in sequential, top to bottom order which is different than the Selection Pane.

Tables

In general, avoid tables if possible and present the data another way, like paragraphs with headings. Tables with fixed width might prove difficult to read for people who use Magnifier, because such tables force the content to a specific size. This makes the font very small, which forces Magnifier users to scroll horizontally, especially on mobile devices.

Tables should only be used to present data; this data should usually be numeric. Do not use tables to present information that could be displayed as a list.

Alternative Text

Add alternative (alt) text to all images and/or non-text content or mark as decorative. To do this, make sure you are viewing the presentation in the "Normal" view. Select the image you wish to work with. Right click on the image and select "View Alt Text." The righthand window panel will have an area to add alt text or mark the image as decorative.

Hyperlinks

People who use screen readers sometimes scan a list of links. Links should convey clear and accurate information about the destination. For example, avoid using link texts such as “Click here,” “See this page,” Go here,” or “Learn more.” Instead include the full title of the destination page. You can also add ScreenTips that appear when your cursor hovers over text or images that include a hyperlink.

Color and Contrast

Color is a great way to enhance the look and feel of digital content. The use of color alone to convey meaning creates problems for people with low vision, color perception deficiencies and color blindness. Using color with accessibility guidelines in mind is an easy and effective way to create digital content that is both appealing and accessible to all.

Fonts

Font choice is one of the first parts of digital content creation. Accessible fonts are very important and must be factored into the design of content. Accessible fonts have a certain level of legibility, including good height, width, and thickness. Font availability is also important. Ideally, it is best practice to use a font that is fairly popular and widely available to most users.

Accessibility Tool

The Accessibility Checker is a tool that reviews your content and flags accessibility issues it comes across. It explains why each issue might be a potential problem for someone with a disability. The Accessibility Checker also suggests how you can resolve the issues that appear.

In PowerPoint, the Accessibility Checker runs automatically in the background when you're creating a presentation. If the Accessibility Checker detects accessibility issues, you will get a reminder in the status bar.

To manually launch the Accessibility Checker, select Review > Check Accessibility. The Accessibility pane opens, and you can now review and fix accessibility issues.