How to Make PowerPoint Presentations Accessible

Slide titles are the headings of a presentation. A screen reader announces the title when a slide opens and lists titles when someone jumps between slides, and the titles make up the outline in Outline view. A slide without a title is announced only by its number; five slides all called “Results” sound identical. This supports 1.3.1 Info and Relationships and 2.4.6 Headings and Labels. Microsoft's checker treats a missing title as an error and a duplicate as a tip.

Add or fix a title

• From the layout: select the slide, choose Home > Layoutand pick a layout with a title, such as Title and Content, then type in the “Click to add title” box. In PowerPoint for the web the choices open in a Slide Layout dialog.
• From the Accessibility ribbon: select Review > Check Accessibility, then open the Slide Title drop-down. Add Slide Title adds a title placeholder, Edit Slide Title jumps to the existing one, and Set as Slide Title turns a selected text box or shape into the title. This works on Windows, Mac and the web.
• In Outline view: select View > Outline View (Windows and Mac) and type next to each slide number. Outline view is also the fastest way to review every title at once, because it lists only the text in title and body placeholders.

Hide a title you do not want on the slide

Some slides, such as a full-bleed photo or a section divider, look better without a visible title. They still need one. Microsoft's Title a slide article gives three ways to keep the title while hiding it from view:

1. Add Hidden Slide Title. In Review > Check Accessibility, open the Slide Title drop-down and choose Add Hidden Slide Title. PowerPoint adds a title placeholder positioned off the slide and puts your cursor in it.
2. Drag it off the slide. Zoom out to about 50% (View > Zoom), type the title, then drag the title placeholder by its border until it sits outside the slide. Check with Slide Show > From Current Slide: the title is not shown, but it is still the slide's title.
3. For many slides, use the slide master. In View > Slide Master, right-click a layout, choose Duplicate Layout, move the duplicate's title placeholder off the slide, close the master view and apply the new layout to the slides that need it (Windows and Mac).

Avoid tricks such as white text on a white background or a tiny font. They are fragile: the text can reappear for someone using a high contrast theme or change colour when the theme changes.

When one topic runs over several slides, add “(1 of 2)” and “(2 of 2)” or “(continued)”. If your deck uses sections, give them real names with Home > Section > Rename Section; Microsoft's checker flags sections left with default names.

A screen reader reads the objects on a slide in the order they are stored in the file, which is usually the order they were added, not the order they appear on screen. A text box added last is read last even if it sits at the top. The title should come first, then the content in the order a sighted person would take it in (1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence).

Windows: the Reading Order pane

1. Select Review > Check Accessibility, then select Reading Order Pane on the Accessibility ribbon. You can also open it from the lower half of the Check Accessibility button, or from a reading order warning in the Accessibility pane.
2. The pane lists the slide's objects top to bottom in the order a screen reader reads them. Drag them into the right order, use the Move Up and Move Down buttons, or press Ctrl+Up arrow and Ctrl+Down arrow.
3. Clearing an object's checkbox marks it as decorative and takes it out of the reading order.

Mac and web: the Selection Pane, in reverse

Microsoft's instructions for PowerPoint for Mac and for the web use the Selection Pane: select Home > Arrange > Selection Pane and drag items to reorder them. The catch is that the Selection Pane lists objects by layer, front to back, which is the reverse of the reading order. The object at the bottom of the list is read first. So the title belongs at the bottom of the Selection Pane, and dragging the list into the order you see on the slide (title at the top) breaks it.

On the slide           Reading Order pane     Selection Pane
(what you see)         (Windows, read order)  (Mac and web, layers)

Title: Q3 results      1. Title 1             Chart 3      <- read last
Text: Revenue up 12%   2. Content 2           Content 2
Chart                  3. Chart 3             Title 1      <- read first

Rename shapes in the Selection Pane (double-click the name) so the list is easy to check: “Q3 revenue chart” is clearer than “Picture 7”. If several objects form one picture, such as an arrow and its label, group them (select them, then Arrange > Group > Group) so they are read as one item with one description. Microsoft notes that grouping removes any animations on the grouped objects.

A slide is a poor place for a large table, so keep tables small and simple, and consider whether a chart with a description, or a few bullet points, would say it better. When you do use one:

• Insert a real table with Insert > Table, not a picture of one or a grid of text boxes.
• Put column headings in the first row and keep Table Design > Header Row ticked (in the Table Style Options group, on Windows and Mac). In PowerPoint, this checkbox is what tells assistive technology the first row holds headers.
• Avoid merged and split cells, tables inside tables and empty cells used for spacing, so each cell belongs to exactly one row and one column (1.3.1 Info and Relationships).
• Pasting from Excel? Paste as a table, not as a picture, and check the header row afterwards.

See accessible data tables for when a table is the right choice and how headers are read.

Projectors and shared screens wash colours out, so slides need more contrast than you think. Text needs at least 4.5:1 against its background, or 3:1 for large text of 18 pt, or 14 pt bold (1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum)). Most slide text is large, but that is a minimum, not a target.

• Fix it in the theme. Choose a theme on the Design tab and set its colours under the Variants gallery (Colors), so every slide inherits text and background pairs that pass. Checking colours once in the theme beats fixing them slide by slide. The accessible colour palettes guide shows how to build a set that passes.
• Text over photos. This is the most common failure, and Microsoft notes its checker can miss low contrast in some cases, such as text in a transparent text box. Put a solid or semi-opaque shape behind the text and test the worst part of the image with the text over image contrast checker. For flat colours, use the contrast checker.
• Never colour alone. Do not rely on red and green to mean bad and good, or a coloured outline to show the recommended option (1.4.1 Use of Color). Add labels, icons or patterns.
• Check in greyscale.On Windows, Microsoft suggests turning on the Grayscale colour filter (Settings > Accessibility > Color filters) and looking through the deck: anything that stops making sense depends on colour.

Motion can help, for example building a diagram one step at a time as you explain it. It can also distract, make some people feel unwell, and hide content from anyone reading the file later.

• Prefer simple, short effects such as Fade or Appear over spinning, bouncing and zooming transitions.
• Never use anything that flashes more than three times a second (2.3.1 Three Flashes or Below Threshold). Check embedded videos and GIFs for flashing too.
• The animation order (Animations > Animation Pane) and the reading order are separate settings. Setting one does not set the other, so check both.
• Avoid slides that advance on a timer (Transitions, Advance Slide After) unless the deck runs unattended, and then give people a way to pause or go back (2.2.1 Timing Adjustable). Looping or auto-playing motion in a self-running deck also needs a way to pause it (2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide).
• Do not hide essential information behind an animation that only plays in the slide show. Anyone reading the file sees every object at once.

Select Review > Check Accessibility in PowerPoint for Windows, Mac or the web. It opens the Accessibility ribbon, with Slide Title, Reading Order Pane, alt text and captions tools in one place, and the Accessibility pane listing errors, warnings and tips. On Windows, the checker also runs in the background and shows a reminder in the status bar.

Microsoft's published rules for the Accessibility Checker for PowerPoint are: missing alt text, tables without header information, sections without meaningful names, slides without titles and restricted access (errors); tables without a simple structure, low text contrast, media without captions and an illogical reading order (warnings); repeated section names and duplicate slide titles (tips); and suggested alt text to review. That is a useful safety net, but it leaves gaps.

An accessible file is half the job. The other half is how you present it.

• Send the deck in advance. People using screen readers or magnification can follow along on their own device at their own pace, and people who process information more slowly can read ahead.
• Turn on live subtitles. PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 can show live captions or translated subtitles as you speak. Set them up in Slide Show > Subtitle Settings (spoken language, subtitle language and position) and select Always Use Subtitles to start them with every show. During a show, the Toggle Subtitles button turns them on and off, and on Windows and the web the Jkey does too. They need a good internet connection, and Microsoft's Speech Services receive your audio to produce them.
• In a Teams meeting,attendees can turn on live captions from the meeting's More actions menu (Captions). Remind people at the start that they are available.
• Describe what is on screen.Read out the slide title as you move on, and say what charts and pictures show: “Sales doubled between May and June”, not “as you can see here”. Read out any quote or key number on the slide.
• Use a microphone, even in a small room, and repeat audience questions before answering them. Hearing aid users and remote attendees depend on it.
• Pace and pointing. Pause on slides with a lot of content, and describe where things are rather than pointing at them.

1. Save a .pptx copy.The checker reads .pptx files. Convert an old .ppt with File > Save As > PowerPoint Presentation (.pptx), and remove any password from a copy first. For Google Slides, choose File > Download > Microsoft PowerPoint (.pptx).
2. Open it in the checker. Drop the file on the Word and PowerPoint Accessibility Checker. Errors are clear failures, warnings need a judgement, and tips are good practice.
3. Fix in PowerPoint, then run Check Accessibility.The free checker does not measure contrast in PowerPoint, so Microsoft's checker and your own eyes cover that.
4. Read the outline. View > Outline View shows every title and the body text in placeholders. If the outline does not tell the story of the deck, neither will a screen reader.
5. Listen to a few slides. Start Narrator on Windows with Ctrl+Windows+Enter or VoiceOver on a Mac with Cmd+F5. In Normal view, press F6 until you reach the slide, then Tab through its objects. You will hear exactly the reading order and alt text you set.
6. Watch the show. Run the slide show on a small screen, or project it, and check that every word is readable and nothing flashes.

For deeper screen reader testing, see the screen reader testing guide and the VoiceOver guide.