PowerPoint Slide Accessibility

Presentation design – Choose a simple design theme 

• If creating a new presentation, choose a simple Design Theme (text should always appear on a solid background, with sufficient contrast between the text and background colours). To learn how, visit Add color and design to your slides (Microsoft Support).
• Keep animations and transitions simple.  

Slide layout – Use an existing layout 

• If creating a new slide, start with existing slide layout that has content placeholders and use the content placeholders for text. 
• Do not start with a blank slide and add textboxes and do not use tables for layout purposes. To learn how, visit Slide layout (Microsoft Support). 

Slide Title – Give each slide a unique title

• Place the unique slide title in the title field. To learn how, visit Title a slide (Microsoft Support). 

• Use capitalization for the first word and proper nouns – do not use all caps for titles. 

Text – Choose a plain, legible font and font size 

• Choose a plain, legible font and size (preferably 24-32 points, minimum of 18 points). 
• Select a text colour that provides high contrast with the background.  
  • Avoid problematic colour combinations (e.g., yellow text on a white background, red text over a blue background, green text over a red background). 
• Do not use underline to emphasize text; use underline for hyperlinks only. 
• Avoid using images of text wherever possible. 

Lists – Use the built-in list tools 

• Use built-in list tools. To learn how, visit Add bullets or numbers (Microsoft Support). 
• Use the appropriate list type.
• Use a bullet (unordered) list when the order of the items does not matter.  
• Use a numbered (ordered) list when the items are intended to be read in a specific order (e.g., instructions). 

Colour – Use sufficient colour contrast and do not use colour alone to convey information

• Do not use colour as the only way of differentiating information (e.g., data lines in a graph). You can check by viewing the presentation without colour. 
• Use sufficient colour contrast between the text and the background and avoid using bright or neon colours for the text or background. Avoid mixing bright colours such as red text over a blue background, or green text over a red background. To learn more, visit Combining colors in PowerPoint – Mistakes to avoid (Microsoft Support).

Images and other media – Provide an appropriate text alternative

• If using decorative images, do so sparingly and label decorative images as "decorative" in the alternative text interface.
• For each image that is not decorative, include meaningful alternative text (a short description of the nature and content of the image) using the built-in function in PowerPoint. 
• For video and audio Provide text alternatives (closed captions and transcripts). 

Reading order – Ensure the slide contents are read in the intended order 

• Check that the reading order of slide contents matches the way you intend your slide to be read. To learn how, visit Reading order (Microsoft Support). 

Tables – Use simple tables for tabular information 

• Use tables only to display information that is suitable for presenting in rows and columns – do not use tables for formatting the slide layout. 
• Create tables using the Insert Table tool. To learn how, visit Add a table to a slide (Microsoft Support). 
• Use a simple table structure; do not nest tables, do not split cells nor merge cells together, and do not leave any table cells empty. 
• Indicate whether the table has a header row and/or a first column (i.e., a header column). 
• Include a caption for the table. 

Sources

• Government of Canada - Accessible PowerPoint presentations in Microsoft 365 
• WebAIM - PowerPoint Accessibility
• Microsoft -  PowerPoint slide accessibility  - step-by-step instructions