This article will cover topics related to creating accessible slide presentations and other visuals. Some common applications used to create accessible slides include Microsoft PowerPoint, Adobe PDF, and Google Slides.
PowerPoint Best Practices
Microsoft has great resources for accessibility best practices when using PowerPoint (link takes you to an external site).
Using Microsoft Accessibility Checker
The Accessibility Checker tool is a great way to check your work for accessibility issues as you are building your slides. To activate the accessibility checker, follow these steps:
When open in PowerPoint, find and click the Review tab, click Check Accessibility, then the accessibility pane will open and begin reviewing any issues. The accessibility checker will explain why each flagged issue can be problematic for someone with accessibility needs.
Test accessibility with a screen reader
When your presentation is ready and you've run the Accessibility Checker to make sure it is inclusive, you can try navigating the slides using a screen reader, for example, Narrator. Narrator comes with Windows, so there's no need to install anything. This is one additional way to spot issues in the navigation order, for example.
- Start the screen reader. For example, to start Narrator, press Ctrl+Windows logo key+Enter.
- Press F6 until the focus, the blue rectangle, is on the slide content area.
- Press the Tab key to navigate the elements within the slide and fix the navigation order if needed. To move the focus away from the slide content, press Esc or F6.
Exit the screen reader. For example, to exit Narrator, press Ctrl+Windows logo key+Enter.
Color Accessibility
In another article, OAT covers color accessibility.
Alternative Formats
You can save your PowerPoint presentations as alternative formats, including PDF, which is recommended. To save your presentation as a PDF, while in PowerPoint app, click file, click save as PDF and begin your download. In addition, you can export your presentation in other formats by clicking file, then click export, and browse the available alternative formats there.