Alt-text is a primary way for making information accessible because they can be rendered in a variety of ways for people. This section discusses images but text alternatives for other formats such as audio or video can help people as well.
Right click on images and select edit alt-text.
This will open a dialog box generally on the right of the screen. Edit the text to describe the image.
In the Home tab select the tab below the new slide to see the various slide options.
It is important to add new content holders not text boxes for to aid with assistive technologies. Content holders look like the gray boxes below.
Only information in content placeholders will be displayed in certain views such as outline or if the documented is converted to another format such as HTML.
To add new content placeholders, click on the View menu and navigate to the Slide Master.
After that choose a master layout on the left and select Insert Placeholder in the Slide Master tab.
This will take you to a menu of type of content placeholders. Only generally text and content need to be selected for accessibility purposes. Things like charts, graphs, and images do not need to be in content placeholders to work correctly. Only text does.
Right-click on the layout on the left after editing the text styles in the layout itself. This will open the option to rename the layout.
Rename the layout optional. Then click Close Master View in the Slide Master tab.
This makes the layout available when one selects New Slide in the Home menu.
For accessibility purposes each slide must have a title in a content placeholder. Just don't select the blank new title screen.
Titles are a way for assistive technologies to locate specific slides. It also allows for the titles to be converted into Heading tags if converted to .pdf. Since individuals are accessing specific slides by using their titles, each title must also be unique. This means that topics that are covered on multiple slides do not use the abbreviations cont. but number each slide.
For example: Don't Do: Powerpoint Accessibility, Powerpoint Accessibility (cont.), Powerpoint Accessibility (cont..)
Do: Powerpoint Accessibility (1 of 3), Powerpoint Accessibility (2 of 3), Powerpoint Accessibility (3 of 3)
Switch to Outline View and you should the title and the content in the content placeholders on the left as well as right. Do this periodically to ensure that you are meeting accessibility standards.
Follow the guidelines in the Add slides section above to add more content placeholders following accessibility guidelines.
Powerpoint has an option to have slides transition automatically after a predetermined number of seconds. People with disabilities need more time to react, to type, and to complete activities.
Animation can be used without problems for accessibility. When Powerpoint is posted or distributed outside of a live presentation it can cause problems with most assistive technology such as screen readers. Test your animation file using assistive technologies before posting.
To perform an accessibility check in Powerpoint, navigate to the File menu at the top.
Go to Info menu on this screen and go to the right check box on the check for images box.
Running this will return results that hopefully look like the in the screenshot below.
If there are errors, tips, and warnings like in the screenshot below, please go through and fix them.
Please review the entire Powerpoint for any accessibility errors apart from the Accessibility Checker before submitting.
Themes are one of the important parts of creating a PowerPoint presentation. The image below shows you how to choose one.
From this menu, one can select the variants drop down to automatically change the color schemes to promote accessibility. Choose colors schemes where enough contrast between the text and the background exists.
Please ensure to check any hyperlinks since they are generally presented in low-contrast formats.