Many of the aspects of making PowerPoint accessible are the same as for Word documents and Excel.
- Have alt-text for images
- Clearly label hyperlinks
- Use screen tips for hyperlinks
- Use headings to establish sections
- Don’t nest, merge, or split cells in spreadsheets
- Make sure color is not the only way information is conveyed (e.g., the colors red, green, yellow also need the words “stop, go, caution.”
- Use a larger font size
- Ensure that embedded videos have closed captions or transcriptions
However, PowerPoint has a couple of other areas that need attention.
Much like Excel needs to have a unique name for each sheet, PowerPoint needs a unique title for every slide.
There is one more aspect that is specific to PowerPoint. Screen readers convey the information on each slide, in the order the information was added to that slide.
This matters every time an author creates a slide with information, and then later decides the facts would be better understood in a different order. The screen reader will read the information in the order it was first entered onto the slide, unless the slide is edited for accessibility.
Here’s how to ensure screen readers read PowerPoint slide elements in the correct order.
A slide is created with text elements. |
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