Best Practices - Microsoft PowerPoint

Emphasis on text in documents is often given by making the font bold, italics, underlined, highlighted, or by changing the font color. None of these can be read by a screen reader. An accessible way to add emphasis is by using “Strong”. This is available in the same section as headers and you can set your preferred formatting for easier reusability.

1. Highlight text to change to strong
2. Go to the Home tab > Styles > Strong

Using Arial in 14-point size increases readability on computer screens and mobile devices. Over 90% of vision issues are related to limited sight or partial vision loss. Generally, using a sans serif font and increasing the type size can help these users.  When projecting the slide in a classroom or other larger room, avoid point sizes smaller than 14 for the main content. If PowerPoint automatically shrinks it to fit, consider an extra slide for increased readability.

1. Highlight text to change the font
2. Go to the Home tab > Font > Font name dropdown and select a sans-serif font, such as Arial
3. Right beside the font name is the font size dropdown. Set it to an acceptable size such as 14

Unless your presentation will always be printed or projected, your URLs should be unique, natural language hyperlinks. Long web addresses read by a screen reader are difficult to understand. Using a hyperlink gives an alias to the link with a readable title. For example, the link title "Your class" is better than "www.yourdepartment.youruniversity.edu/yourname/yourclass/randomnumbers."

1. Select a link > Insert tab > Links (dialog box opens)
   OR Select a link > Right-click > Link (dialog box opens)
2. In "Text to display," give a readable name for your URL
3. In "Address," provide the web URL

Use numbered lists if your points are in a sequence of steps. Use bulleted lists if the order does not matter. Do not create the appearance of a list by inserting an asterisk or number and hitting return several times before another asterisk or number. Instead, utilize the built-in formatting functions in PowerPoint.

1. Select the Home tab
2. Choose Numbered List or Bulleted List option from the Paragraph group

Alternative text ("alt text” for short) makes images in documents accessible by adding a textual description for pictures, tables, charts, or any visual imagery. For example, a picture of Harry Truman should have the alt text “Harry Truman.” However, a picture of an atom might need a more descriptive alt text. The key is to think critically about what information a user would gather from the visual depiction. Alt text also stays intact when exporting to HTML or PDF. The steps for creating alt text depend on what you need to add the alt text to.

• Pictures: Right-click > Edit Alt Text > Give description in the box on the right-side panel
  OR Select the object. Select Picture Format > Alt Text
• Tables: Hover over the table to get the cross icon > Right-click on it > Table properties > Alt text tab
  OR Select the table. Select Layout >Table > Properties > Alt text tab
• Charts: Right-click > Edit Alt Text > Give description in the box on the right-side panel
  OR Select the chart. Select Format > Accessibility > Alt Text > Give description in the box on the right-side panel

Accessible tables have a clean structure where headers guide the screen reader to navigate across the table cells. Cells should not be merged or split. On the right are two examples of tables with names and addresses. The first image shows a table with merged cells, which is discouraged. The second image shows proper table setup: headers with the required information below it and the same number of cells in each row. A table should also include alt text.

1. Select the Insert tab > Table > Insert Table
2. To add table headers to the first row, highlight the first row select Table Tools >Table Design > Header Row box in the table style options check the box
3. If your table spans a page select Table Tools > Layout tab > "Repeat Header Rows" in the Data section

Screen readers read the elements of a slide in the order they were added, which may not be ideal. The selection pane contains the elements on the slides which can be used for reordering. The reading order in the selection pane should be arranged from the bottom up, i.e., the title should be at the bottom with subsequent content following above it.

• Access the reading order by selecting the Home tab > Drawing section > Arrange dropdown > Selection Pane
• Change the order by dragging and dropping elements using the mouse or by arrow keys on the keyboard

Once the above steps are done, read the document out loud. Written language in emails and documents may not translate well into the verbal language used by screen readers. For example, “Fri” is read as “fry” and “7-10” is read as “seven dash ten.” Screen readers follow simple language rules when reading screen text.

• Decrease abbreviations and uncommon acronyms
• Use "or" or "and" instead of slash (/)

Microsoft PowerPoint contains a built-in accessibility checker that identifies issues and provides instructions on how to remediate them. The accessibility checker provides a list of inspection results, including errors, warnings, or tips. Additional information explains why and how an issue should be fixed. Issues will disappear from the list once they have been addressed. The goal is to work through this list until everything has disappeared. Please note that older versions of Microsoft Word prior to 2016 do not have this feature.

1. Select the Review tab > Click on the "Check Accessibility" icon in the Accessibility section
2. On the right sidebar, unfold the category accordions to find and resolve specific issues
3. Left-click on the issues to locate the respective objects
4. Click on the drop-down in the issues to explore more options