Accessibility

Presentations

Create a Fully Accessible Presentation

Accessible presentations meet the needs of many audiences and benefit everyone—both during a live event and when reviewing the material later. Well-designed slides support anyone who needs clarity, flexibility, or alternative ways to engage with information.

These groups of people and situations include:

Deaf/hard of hearing
Visually impaired
Cognitive impairment
In a noisy environment
Non-native speakers
Using a device with poor sound quality and/or small screen
Recovering from a surgery or experiencing a temporary disability
Asynchronous learners
Aging adults

Note: Your fully accessible slides may require extra time—plan ahead.

PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint is one of the most accessibility-friendly presentation tools available. It offers strong built-in features for both creating and testing accessible content, including an Accessibility Checker, reading order tools, and robust screen reader compatibility.

Other latforms such as Prezi, Google Slides, and Canva offer fewer accessibility features and may not fully support all users' needs. For this reason, they are generally not recommended when accessibility is a priority.

What goes into fully accessible presentation slides?

Slide Design and Readability Less is more when it comes to accessible slides. Don't get too crazy with design features.

Use high color contrast (dark text on light background)
Avoid using color alone to convey meaning
Use large font sizes (28+ for headings and 18-24 for body text)
Choose simple, sans-serif fonts (Arial, Calibri)
One idea/concept per slide

Content Clarity

Use plain language and avoid jargon
Use bulleted points instead of long paragraphs
Incorporate meaningful headings for structure
Ensure slides can be understood without narration

Audio and Delivery When your presentation has an audio component:

Provide captions or a transcript for spoken content
Verbally describe important visuals during the presentation
Avoid animations

Images, Charts & Media

Add meaningful alt text to all images, charts, and graphics
Make charts simple and include clear labels and data descriptions
Avoid overly complex visuals

Set Reading Order

Screen readers don't "see" slides like the human eye—they read content in a specific sequence based on the reading order set by the presentation creator. If that order is not set or wrong:

Content may be read out of sequence
Important information could be missed
Slides can become unusable for assistive technology users

Pro tip! Work smart and use PowerPoint's default slide layouts which automatically set a logical reading order. Avoive placing manual text boxes...fewer elements makes for an easier reading order.

Before sharing or exporting your presentation, check and set the reading order pane.

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