PowerPoint accessibility secrets for communication professionals

It’s been a while since we visited the topic of inclusive speaking. Because everyone deserves to be part of the conversation, today we tackle making PowerPoint presentations accessible for audience members with disabilities.

Engaging your audience with clear, accessible information demonstrates sound communication principles. To really hit home with everyone, your slides need to be built so they work for people across the board, no matter their situation or what they can do. If you’re giving talks and using PowerPoint, it’s key to know about making your slides accessible. Thinking of sticking to the WCAG rules from the W3C so everyone can follow along easily is a great place to start.

To craft a PowerPoint that everyone can follow, think about what folks with different disabilities might need. What might your audience expect if they have trouble seeing or hearing, find learning challenging, or have difficulty processing information? Stick to the best practices for accessibility, and you’ll make your presentation a breeze to follow and get – whether or not someone’s using assistive technologies like screen readers or screen magnification.

Exploring PowerPoint accessibility best practices

When you’re up there sharing your expertise, remember to craft your talk so everyone gets it, including those with disabilities. Think screen reader-friendly slides and clear visuals! Stick to clear slide layouts and sharp titles, pick fonts everyone can read easily, check for strong color contrasts, and don’t forget alt text for your visuals. Make your links tell a story, break down ideas with bullet points and bold headers, let everyone join in via keyboard commands, and always include subtitles or scripts for videos.

Employing inclusive presentation practices assists all attendees. For instance, using clear and concise language, structuring your content logically, and maintaining a consistent layout can improve comprehension and retention of information for everyone. When you choose to design with everyone in mind, you’re really showing that you value making sure everyone gets a fair shot at the information and chances out there.

So, making your PowerPoints accessible is crucial to reach everyone in your audience. As a speaking or communication professional, adhering to the WCAG guidelines and implementing best practices will ensure your content is accessible to audience members with various disabilities.

Here’s one way to look at it: accessible PowerPoint presentations make it easier for all attendees to follow. That’s what you’re shooting for, isn’t it? Ensuring that every visual cue aligns perfectly with the audience’s expectations.

01. Provide meaningful alt text for informative visuals – SC 1.1.1

Alternative text (alt text) is essential for providing a text-based description of meaningful and relevant images, charts, and other non-text visuals found in your slides to users who have visual impairments. Screen readers will then be able to read the alt text aloud, thus allowing assistive technology users to understand the meaning and purpose of the visual content. You should always strive to keep alt text concise yet meaningful and descriptive (typically between 10-15 words if you can), avoid using phrases like “image of” or “picture of,” and focus on the essential information conveyed by the visual.

02. Provide captions and transcripts for multimedia – SC 1.2.1 / SC 1.2.2 / SC 1.2.3

Captions and transcripts aren’t just nice techy add-ons; they’re crucial for folks who can’t hear, letting them in on the action of videos and audio just like everyone else. Closed captions provide a synchronized text version of the spoken dialogue and relevant sound effects found in video content. In contrast, text transcripts offer a separate text document containing the same information as what can otherwise be found in pre-recorded video and audio files. Both options enable users with hearing impairments to access and understand the multimedia content and are increasingly easy to implement using features found under the “Video Format” tab in the PowerPoint ribbon (or by doing business with an agreed upon third-party provider).

03. Organize content with lists and headings – SC 1.3.1 / SC 2.4.6 / SC 2.4.10

Organizing content in your slides with lists and headings helps structure your presentation, which then makes it easier for both sighted audience members and screen readers to navigate and understand the information provided through your slides. Using bulleted or numbered lists to group related items or steps and applying headings to separate sections or topics will greatly help make sense of the content and its structure. Organizing content clearly not only helps people with different cognitive abilities grasp information better, but also makes it stick for everyone.

04. Control the reading order of slides – SC 1.3.2

Control the order in which content is read on any given slide by leveraging the “Selection Pane” feature to make your presentation more accessible for those relying on screen reader technology. Screen readers narrate content in slides based on their reading order. By setting it correctly, you ensure that all your audience members grasp your message without confusion, even those with disabilities. To access the Selection Pane, navigate to the “Home” tab, click “Arrange,” and then select “Selection Pane.” You can then use the feature to adjust the order of objects on the slide, ensuring that the content is presented logically and coherently, starting from the bottom of the list with your Title element, and making your way up sequentially.

05. Rely on more than just colour to convey information – SC 1.4.1

Relying on colour as the only way to convey information inevitably leads to confusion and frustration for colourblind people and those with colour perception deficiencies. To create accessible presentations, rely on additional visual cues or text descriptions that supplement colour-coded information, so that your content is clear and understandable for all users, including those who cannot perceive colors the way other people do. Incorporating distinctive patterns, varied shapes, or clear labels can significantly aid in distinguishing the elements within charts, like pies or bars. Adopting strong colour contrasts helps ensure your visuals are crystal clear to all, no matter their colour perception skills.

06. Ensure sufficient colour contrast – SC 1.4.3 / SC 1.4.6 / SC 1.4.11

While we are on the topic of colour, relying on weak colour contrasts can seriously hinder the accessibility of your presentation for people with visual impairments or colour vision deficiencies. Always ensure that all your content and their respective background colors have sufficient contrast, following the WCAG’s recommended minimum contrast ratios of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text (14 points bold or 18 points and larger). Tap into Color Contrast Checking tools to ensure your visuals are up to scratch with the recommended guidelines. I’m particularly fond of the desktop tool made available by TPGi and the online version developed by Alex Clapperton.

07. Choose legible and accessible fonts – SC 1.4.8 / SC 1.4.12

Selecting accessible and more legible fonts plays a vital role in creating slides and presentations that work better for everyone, including neurodivergent individuals and seniors, as well as those who have low vision or other visual impairments. When picking fonts for your slides, lean towards clear sans-serif options like Arial, Calibri, or Verdana to boost on-screen legibility. Stick to a minimum font size of at least 18 to 20 points to ensure maximum readability, 24 if possible. Additionally, make sure to avoid overly stylized or decorative fonts that may be more difficult to process for some people. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should!

08. Ensure content is keyboard accessible – SC 2.1.1 / SC 2.1.3

Accessible keyboard navigation is also vital for people who can’t use a mouse or other devices that require hand-eye coordination. This includes those who have various forms of limited mobility, as well as those with many visual disabilities. You should always ensure that your content and functionalities can be fully accessed using just the keyboard interface. Keyboard navigation typically includes leveraging the Tab key for navigation, the Arrow keys to cycle through a grouping of options, the Space bar to toggle different controls, and the Enter or Space key for activation. Test your presentation using just your keyboard to verify its accessibility, and address any issues as they come up.

09. Provide unique and descriptive slide titles – SC 2.4.2

Unique and descriptive slide titles are crucial for accessibility, as they allow screen reader users to easily navigate between different slides and still understand the distinct purpose of each one, and what to expect from them in terms of content. When assigning a title to a slide, make sure that it reflects the slide’s main idea or key points. Clear slide titles are a beacon for those with visual challenges, guiding them through the presentation as effortlessly as a well-told tale captures an audience’s imagination. Thinking of them as signposts for the content they represent definitely helps!

10. Make hyperlink text descriptive and meaningful – SC 2.4.4 / SC 2.4.9

Much in the same way that slides need meaningful titles, hyperlinks also need to make sense when considered out of their immediate context. Descriptive and expressive link text is also crucial to help those with disabilities who rely on screen readers, as it conveys the purpose or destination of said link. Instead of using generic phrases like “click here,” “read more,” or “more info,” make sure to write up link text that provides sufficient context when looking at the link text alone, and indicates what folks can expect should they follow the link. Crafting clear, context-rich link text not only aids people with visual challenges but also enhances the browsing experience for everyone while giving your document’s search rankings a solid bump!

11. Use built-in PowerPoint slide layouts – SC N/A

Using built-in slide layouts from the Slide Master templates ensures a consistent structure and predictable experience throughout the presentation. Slide layouts are like blueprints – they help screen reader users grasp the content better, and they let you steer your presentation’s look from a single, solid, and centralized starting point. Choose the right slide layout to nail your point, and you’ll not only make it a breeze for everyone, but you’ll also save yourself time when updating or copying slides. Opting for built-in layouts not only tidies up your slide-making process but also guarantees that the content’s flow is spot-on for those relying on assistive technologies, ensuring your message is delivered clearly and effectively across different modalities.

12. Avoid manually recreating styles and formatting – SC N/A

When customizing slide layouts, you should also avoid manually making changes to individual slides by copying, moving, or resizing existing blocks of content or elements, as any existing accessibility issue, as well as manual modifications or formatting of the content, will then be duplicated and carried over to your next slide. Instead, use the Master Slide feature to create and edit layouts based on the needs that you have for the next slide, and apply the layout consistently throughout your presentation. This approach ensures a coherent structure, making it easier for assistive technologies to interpret the content. It also ensures that you can globally control the look and feel of every slide from a centralized source (the Slide Master templates). Jump into the Slide Master view by hitting “Slide Master” under the “View” tab, where you can tweak and fine-tune your layouts just how you need them.

13. Favour built-in functionalities over manual toolbar formatting – SC N/A

Always favour PowerPoint’s built-in formatting functionalities over any kind of manual toolbar formatting to ensure a more consistent and accessible presentation for all users. This means avoiding any font, size, or colour change by manually modifying the content through formatting controls and instead leveraging the styles and formatting previously defined in the Slide Master templates. This is because manually modifying the look and feel of your presentation using formatting toolbar options may inadvertently introduce unsuspected accessibility issues. Tap into slide layouts and themes to give your content a clean, professional edge by leveraging built-in features like slide layouts, styles, and themes. That way, you’ll maintain the overall look and feel of the content while providing both a logical reading order and proper structure.

14. Avoid less accessible PowerPoint features – SC N/A

Avoid the less accessible PowerPoint features such as text boxes, shapes, or transitions that can introduce accessibility barriers for people who have disabilities, as these elements are often difficult for assistive technologies to interpret. Certain PowerPoint elements might trip up folks with cognitive challenges by throwing curveballs into their slide-viewing experience. Instead, opt for built-in slide layouts, blocks of content and styles originating from the Slide Masters template that has been designed with accessibility in mind in the first place. If you must use these features, test your presentation with assistive technologies to ensure they do not hinder accessibility. Don’t hesitate to assign alt text on any object that may not be reliably conveyed to screen readers and other assistive technologies.

15. Run the PowerPoint Accessibility Checker – SC N/A

On top of testing your slides with a screen reader and conducting keyboard navigation testing to ensure the content and functionalities are fully accessible to those with various types of disabilities, running an automated accessibility checker through your presentation slides is an essential step to identify all low-hanging fruits and address potential issues. Thankfully, the PowerPoint built-in Accessibility Checker, found under “Tools,” allows you to automatically detect accessibility problems (many of which are considerations mentioned in this resource) while receiving improvement suggestions in real-time. Using PowerPoint’s Accessibility Checker, you’ll sidestep basic accessibility issues and align your presentation with WCAG standards, nailing down most of the obvious fixes.