PowerPoint accessibility

There are a few things you should consider when creating accessible presentations on Microsoft PowerPoint.

On this page you can find information on:

Templates

There are prebuild templates that can save time and improve accessibility. Templates support accessibility in areas such as:

  • additional white space to make slides easier to read
  • strong colour contrast
  • monochrome for people who cannot see colours.

Layout

PowerPoint layouts normally include a slide title that's normally at the top of the page. It will also include one or more placeholder areas so you can add content including:

  • lists
  • images
  • tables. 

The title should be the first thing presented on the presentation to screen readers. 

Each slide should also have a unique title. This should be within the slide and not above or below it.

You should also ensure that slides can be read in the correct order. You'll need to do this this by clicking 'home', 'arrange' and 'selection panel'.

Reading order

If you need to check the reading order, you should go to:

  1. 'home'
  2. 'arrange'
  3. 'selection page'.

This will then show the reading order in the right-hand sidebar.

You can change the reading order by clicking and dragging or by using the up and down arrow buttons. 

Design

To design accessible presentations, you should:

  • use off-white backgrounds for people with dyslexia
  • avoid using content-heavy slides
  • avoid using too many text boxes as this will complicate the reading order.

Slide transitions

You should avoid using automatic slide transitions and animation. They are distracting and flashing elements can make them inaccessible. 

Speakers notes

The speaker notes should be used to provide more in-depth information. This is because you do not want to add too much information to a slide and overload them with information. 

Fonts

You should consider the font by:

  • using a size of at least 24-points for presentation to improve readability for all users
  • not using fonts that are compressed, or have an uneven line weight
  • avoiding bold, italic or underline text as it can make content difficult to read. The only underline should be URL hyperlinks.

Alternative text

All images need alternative text.

Read more about alternative text and the golden rules

If an image is decorative, for example a border, this should be marked as 'decorative' because it gives no information for someone who is using assistive technology. 

Tables

You should:

  • keep them simple
  • avoid merged cells
  • ensure you have a header row
  • avoid using tables to structure your content
  • provide a clear explanation for what a table is going to show.

Tables will need to have an alternative text description. To do this you'll need to:

  1. right click the table
  2. click on 'table properties'
  3. click 'alt text'
  4. write your table alternative text.

Hyperlinks

You should use descriptive words for hyperlinks.

Never use non-descriptive words, such as 'click here'.

A good example is: Pay your Medway Council Tax online

A bad example is: www.medway.gov.uk/info/200131/council-tax/13/pay-your-council-tax

Another bad example is: Click here for more.

Videos and audio in PowerPoint presentations

If you're using videos or audio in presentations, you should:

  • ensure captions are available and embedded into the video
  • assess if you need audio description for the video
  • supply a transcript for audio only media. 

Naming files

When creating a file name:

  • use hyphens to separate the words
  • avoid spaces as these will be automatically replaced with characters
  • do not include the name of the person who created the file
  • do not include the date the file was created.

For example:

Use: the-big-splash-timetable

Avoid: the big splash timetable JRichards 25 nov’ (the’ #big’ ’splash’ ’timetable’ ’jrichards’ ’25’ ’nov).