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Accessibility: Presentations

Overview

Presentations used for teaching and learning must be in an accessible format so that people with disabilities using assistive or adaptive technology can access the information. 

TIP:  The Accessibility Checker checks your PowerPoint presentations for any issues with regard to accessibility. To learn more, visit Microsoft's website page on the Accessibility Checker.

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Accessibility Guidelines for Presentations

This is an overview of the elements that require special consideration when creating accessible presentations. Please review one of the Additional Resources for detailed instructions on any of the following:

  • Give every slide a unique title to enable screen reader to navigate properly.
  • Make sure all links are clearly visible and are not hidden behind other objects, such as images or text.  Use informative text, such as the title of the page you are linking to rather than "click here."
  • Provide column headings in tables.
  • Use simple table structure. Avoid merged or split cells, these confuse adaptive keyboards and screen readers.
  • Check the reading order of each slide to ensure a screen reader reads it in the order you intended.
  • Provide alternative text for images that convey content. Use accurate and equivalent descriptions.
  • Ensure the text is legible by using Sans-serif fonts and make sure your Color Scheme has enough contrast between light and dark. Avoid using orange, red and green for your template or text. 
  • Use texture instead of color to highlight points of interest.
  • Check for high color contrast.
  • Avoid flashing images. These may cause seizures for students with photosensitive epilepsy and may be distracting for students with learning disabilities.
  • Provide a transcript for spoken content and music with lyrics in a video or audio file. Include visual description of images that provide content.
  • Caption (or subtitle) any video content.
  • Do not use the "Save as HTML" file format in PowerPoint to present documents in Moodle. This format is difficult for screen readers to navigate.
  • Use the comments and suggestions features rather than writing notes within the text of your presentation.  Screen readers can jump to comments using keyboard shortcuts.
  • Use text to support formatting rather than bold, italics, etc.  For example, to make an important section of text, add the word "Important."
  • Present slides with captions

Examples

Google Slides with Automatic Captions

Using Live Captioning in Office 365

Additional Resources

Accessibility Check

To check: