Digital Accessibility for PowerPoints

Slide Layouts and Titles

• Use PowerPoint's built-in slide layouts rather than adding text boxes and other elements manually. Built-in layouts help PowerPoint identify the structure of your slides.
• Give each slide a unique, meaningful title.
• Avoid putting too much information on a single slide.

Fonts 

• Choose a simple, readable font and avoid overly decorative or script-like fonts.
• Use 24 pt or larger for body text and 32 pt or larger for headings.

Colors

• Use sufficient color contrast between text and its background. Dark text on a light background or light text on a dark background is generally easiest to read.
• Do not use color as the only way to communicate information.
  • For example, instead of saying "the items in red need attention," label them Needs Attention and use color as an additional visual cue.

Images, charts, diagrams, and shapes may communicate information that someone who cannot see them needs to know.

• Add alternative text (alt text) to meaningful images, charts, diagrams, and shapes. Describe the important information or purpose of the visual.  Learn more about writing alternative text.
  • To add alt text: Right-click the image or other visual and select View Alt Text
• To mark an image as decorative: Right-click the image, select View Alt Text, then Mark as decorative. Use only for images that do not communicate information.
• Shapes can communicate important information. Make sure the information they communicate is also available to someone who cannot see the visual. Group related shapes and objects when they work together to communicate one idea.
• Do not use screenshots or images of text, tables, charts, or data when you can provide the information directly in PowerPoint.

Example: If arrows and shapes show the steps in a process, do not mark them as decorative. Make sure the steps and their relationships are also communicated through text or alt text.

Tip: Ask yourself, "If someone couldn't see this visual, what would they need to know?"

Whenever possible, create tables and charts using PowerPoint's built-in tools rather than inserting them as images.

Tables:

• Keep tables simple.
• Include a clear header row that identifies the information in each column. Avoid multiple header rows or columns.
• Avoid merging cells.
• Do not use tables simply to position content on a slide.

Charts and graphs:

• Clearly label important information.
• Do not rely on color alone to distinguish data.
• Add alt text that communicates the main information or takeaway.

Tip: If a table or chart is too complicated to explain or read easily, consider simplifying it.

Screen readers read the objects on a slide in a specific order. This order may not match the way the slide looks visually.

• Go to Review → Check Accessibility and look for Check reading order warnings. Select Verify object order to open the Reading Order pane.
• In the Reading Order pane, arrange objects in the order they should be read. A typical order is title → introductory text → main content → supporting visuals or information.
• Make sure related objects are grouped logically. For example, if multiple shapes make up a process, they should be encountered together and have sufficient alternative text.

Tip: Don't assume that because a slide looks correct, it will be read correctly by a screen reader. Make sure to check the order of the objects in the Reading Order pane.

PowerPoint's Accessibility Checker can identify many common accessibility issues.

Go to Review → Check Accessibility.

Review the results and address all errors and warnings. The checker can identify issues such as missing alt text, unclear reading order, and other problems. However, it does not catch everything, so human review is needed as well.

If you have any questions please reach out to us at accessibility@olemiss.edu