Slide decks are typically created to complement presentations, although occasionally they are also used as a means of delivering standalone content. The preferred tool for creating accessible slides is Microsoft PowerPoint. Depending on the content of your slides and your method for delivery, Google Slides can also be used, but it has shortcomings as described throughout this page.
Use the following steps to guide you in creating slides that are accessible to anyone who needs to read them, including users with disabilities.
Step 1. Use standard slide templates
The UW Brand PowerPoint Templates have been designed with accessibility in mind. Be sure you’re using the latest version, as they are occasionally updated with accessibility-related improvements.
Some UW units have also created their own branded templates. For example, UW-IT has created UW-IT-Branded Document Templates, including PowerPoint templates (link is restricted to UW-IT employees). Please check with your unit or department to see if custom templates are available, and whether they’ve been vetted for accessibility.
If using non-branded templates, use the ones that are built-in to the authoring tool. Do not start with a blank presentation or try to create your own template unless you have expertise on how to do so with accessibility in mind. Many of the accessibility problems that occur in slides (including slides without titles, background images that are incorrectly tagged, color contrast problems, and incorrect reading order) can be avoided by using standard templates.
Step 2. Use unique slide titles
Slide titles are used by screen readers to identify slides in the navigation pane. Without titles, slides are referred to by the slide number in the deck, which is far less helpful. With slide titles, screen reader users can quickly read through the list of slide titles and find a particular slide they want to read or edit.
Note that big, bold text on a slide is not necessarily coded as a title. This is one of the reasons why Step 1 (using standard slide templates) is so important. Standard design templates can generally be trusted to be properly coded with titles on every slide.
Avoid using the same title on multiple slides, as that can be confusing to someone who’s browsing through a list of titles. If there are multiple slides in a series, all related to the same topic, it’s ok to use the same title on each slide, but supplement the title with a unique identifier such as “Slide 1 of 3”.
Step 3. Create content with accessibility in mind
Creating accessible content in slide decks is similar to creating accessible content in other digital media, such as documents and web pages. In particular, be mindful of the following issues. All links lead to additional information on the pages of our Digital Accessibility Checklist, including specific techniques in PowerPoint, Google Slides, and Canva.
- Images – Add alt text to all images. Images uses purely for design, not to inform, may be marked as decorative in some platforms.
- Color Contrast – Be sure foreground text has sufficient contrast with the background color so it’s easy to read.
- Visual Characteristics – Avoid using color (and other visual characteristics) as the sole means of communicating information.
- Links and Buttons – Use meaningful link text, so the purpose of the link is clear if users read it independently of context.
- Tables – If slides include tables, include column headers and be sure the header row is explicitly identified.
- Flashing and Flickering – Avoid content that flashes or flickers, as this can cause seizures.
Step 4. Run the Accessibility Checker
PowerPoint includes the Microsoft Office Accessibility Checker, which is able to identify most accessibility problems, including missing or redundant slide titles, color contrast issues, and images with missing alt text. It also identifies possible problems in the read order of content within slides. See Step 5 to learn about read order.
NOTE: There is currently no accessibility checker available in Google Docs or Slides. If you must use Google, you need to be extra diligent to ensure your content is accessible.
Step 5. Checking and fixing read order
The term “read order” refers to the order in which each element on the slide will be read by screen readers. The Accessibility Checker in PowerPoint automatically checks read order of content on each slide. If it suspects the read order is not correct, it identifies which slides might be problematic. Each slide identified should be manually inspected.
There are two tools in PowerPoint that can be used for checking and fixing read order: Selection Pane (both Windows and Mac) and Reading Order Pane (Windows). Please read the following instructions carefully, as there are important differences between these tools.
Selection Pane (Read order is bottom to top)
From the Home tab in PowerPoint, select the “Arrange” drop-down, then choose “Selection Pane…” from the menu. In the Selection Pane, all page elements are listed in the order in which they will be read by screen readers, starting from the bottom. For example, the screen shot below shows a list of four items, with Title 1 on the bottom and Picture 5 on top. Title 1 will be read first, and Picture 5 will be read last. This is the correct read order for the slide shown, but if the read order is not correct, you can correct it by dragging elements to their proper place.
NOTE: The “eye” icon to the right of each slide element can be toggled on or off to hide or show the content visually. When considering whether to use this feature, please note that screen readers vary in how they handle it: Some will still read the visually hidden content; others will not.
Reading Order Pane (Read order is top to bottom)
In the latest versions of PowerPoint for Windows, Microsoft has introduced a new “Reading Order Pane”, which lists all page elements in the order in which they will be read by screen readers, starting from the top. This feature is currently only available in Windows, not in PowerPoint for Mac.
To access this feature, select the “Check Accessibility” button in the ribbon, then choose “Reading Order Pane” from the menu.
In the screen shot below, Title 1 is the first item in the list and will be read first by screen readers, followed by Picture 3 and Picture 4.
This is the correct reading order for the example slide, but if the reading order is not correct, you can correct it by dragging elements to their proper place. The read order can also be correct without a mouse, using the “Move up” and “Move down” buttons that are positioned immediately above the list of elements.