Making PowerPoint Presentations Accessible

Unique Slide Titles

Every slide must have a title placed inside the designated Title placeholder — not a free-floating text box that happens to look like a title. Screen readers rely on this placeholder to announce slide titles and allow users to navigate between slides by name.

• Titles must be unique across the entire deck. "Slide 1," "Slide 2," or repeated section headers all fail this requirement.
• Titles must be descriptive — they should tell the audience what the slide is about.
• To audit your titles quickly: go to View → Outline View. Each slide's Title placeholder text appears in the outline. Any blank or repeated line is a problem.
• If a slide is intentionally untitled (e.g., a full-bleed image), add a title and set it to not display visually rather than leaving the placeholder empty.

Reading Order

Every object on a PowerPoint slide — text boxes, images, shapes, charts — has a stacking and reading order. Screen readers read objects in the order listed in the Selection Pane, from bottom to top.

Alt Text for All Images

Every image, chart, SmartArt graphic, and icon must have alternative text so screen reader users understand the content conveyed visually.

• Images: Right-click the image → Edit Alt Text. Write a concise, meaningful description of what the image shows and why it is there.
• Charts: Summarize the key finding, not the chart type. For example: "Bar chart showing enrollment grew 12% from 2022 to 2024." Do not write "bar chart."
• SmartArt: Describe the relationship or process the diagram communicates.
• Decorative images (purely aesthetic, no informational value): Check the "Mark as decorative" checkbox in the Alt Text panel. This tells screen readers to skip the object.

Use Slide Layouts

Built-in slide layouts define semantic content regions that screen readers understand. Using free-floating text boxes for body content breaks this structure.

• Apply a layout via Home → Layout. Choose a Content layout that matches your slide's purpose.
• Type body text inside the Content placeholder, not a manually inserted text box.
• Avoid blank layout slides — always start from a named layout, then hide placeholders you do not need.
• Consistent layouts also make reading order more predictable and reduce remediation work.

Font Size Minimums

Presentations are often viewed at a distance or on small screens. Small text is a barrier for users with low vision, even before considering screen reader access.

• Body text: 18pt minimum.
• Headings / slide titles: 24pt minimum.
• Color contrast: Minimum 4.5:1 ratio for normal text against the slide background (WCAG AA). Use the WebAIM Contrast Checker to verify.
• Never convey information through color alone — always pair color with a text label, pattern, or icon.

Animations

Animations can create significant barriers for users with vestibular disorders, attention disorders, and for anyone using assistive technology that does not handle animated state changes well.

• Avoid auto-play or looping animations that begin without user action.
• If animations are essential to the presentation narrative, make sure every piece of content is fully readable in the static, non-animated state.
• Do not use animations to reveal critical information — the information should be present in the base slide.
• When exporting to PDF or distributing the file for asynchronous viewing, verify that the exported version is coherent without animation.

Tables

Use tables only for genuinely tabular data — not for visual layout. PowerPoint tables lack the robust header association of HTML tables, so simplicity is critical.

• Insert via Insert → Table.
• In the Table Design tab, enable the Header Row option so the first row is marked as a header.
• Keep tables simple: avoid merged cells, split cells, and nested tables.
• Each column should have a clear, descriptive header. Do not leave header cells blank.
• Add alt text to the table as a whole via right-click → Edit Alt Text, summarizing what the data shows.

Export to PDF

When distributing a presentation as a PDF, the export method determines whether accessibility tags are preserved.

• Go to File → Export → Create PDF/XPS.
• Click Options and check "Document structure tags for accessibility."
• Never use File → Print → Print to PDF — this strips all accessibility tags and produces a flat, inaccessible image-like PDF.
• After export, open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat and run the Accessibility Checker to confirm tags transferred correctly.

Accessibility Checker

PowerPoint includes a built-in Accessibility Checker that catches common issues automatically.

• Go to Review → Check Accessibility. The panel opens on the right side of the screen.
• Work through all Errors first — these are definite barriers. Then address Warnings and Tips.
• Common errors include: missing alt text, duplicate slide titles, and missing slide titles.
• Run the checker as a final step before every distribution.

Checklist

• Every slide has a unique, descriptive title in the Title placeholder
• Reading order verified in Selection Pane (Title last in pane = read first)
• All images, charts, and SmartArt have meaningful alt text or marked decorative
• Built-in Content layouts used — no free-floating body text boxes
• Body text 18pt or larger; headings 24pt or larger
• Color contrast meets 4.5:1 minimum; color not used as sole indicator
• No auto-play animations; content readable in static state
• Tables use Header Row; no merged cells
• PDF exported via Create PDF/XPS with structure tags — not printed to PDF
• Accessibility Checker run — zero Errors