What Makes a PowerPoint Accessible?
A document is accessible if it has been designed and structured to be used by people who use assisted technology. Assistive technology devices and software allow people to interact with and access documents effectively if they are accessible. These instructions focus on improving accessibility for people using screenreaders.
Built-in slide layout templates are designed so the reading order is the same for people with vision and for people who use assistive technology such as screen readers. They also contain all the formatting, such as theme colors, fonts, and effects.
For online reading sans-serif fonts are considered more legible. Examples of sans-serif fonts are Arial, Verdana, and Calibri. Decorative and narrow fonts should be reserved for headlines and decorative texts only.
Use a color scheme that provides enough contrast between the text and the background. You can check your color combinations at the WebAIM Contrast Checker.
To help colorblind viewers can access and understand your presentation avoid using the colors red, green, and orange; use textures instead of colors in graphs; and draw attention to important information on slides by circling it rather than changing its color.
Alt text (Alternative text) for images, charts, graphs, and tables allows viewers to have access to the information included in these images. How would you describe your visual to someone who cannot see it?
Alt text for simple images should be concise, generally around 125 characters. For more complicated items like charts, graphs, and tables will need longer descriptions. The more important an image's content is the more descriptive the alt text should be. If your poster already contains a detailed description, the alternative text can simply identify the image so that the reader knows when it is being referred to.
To add Alt Text descriptions:
Screen readers read the elements of a slide in the order they were added to the slide, which might be very different from the order in which things appear. To make sure everyone reads the contents in the order you intend, it’s important to check the reading order by using the Selection Pane. From here, you can drag and drop to adjust the reading order of the contents on the slide.
Microsoft products have a built-in accessibility checker which can help the document author test the overall accessibility of the document. The checker provides Inspection Results, feedback about the importance of each item, and tips on how to repair issues. If you have already created your poster and need to go back and make it accessible, you can start here and work backwards.
This page was adapted from earlier work by Daina Dickman (Scholarly Communication Librarian, Sacramento State University) and Elyse Fox (Digital Projects Specialist, Sacramento State University).
