Microsoft PowerPoint Accessibility

Make sure each slide has a title that is unique to the content on the slide. Do not use “Slide 1,” “Slide 2,” and so forth.

• Hyperlinks are a clear and accurate description of the link destination. Avoid using “click here,” "read more," or “link.”
  • Example: Be sure to check out the ETS Engineering Site  for more information. 
• Hyperlinking from an image or icon:
  • Add the correct hyperlink, add a ScreenTip if necessary (for emails), add alt text (left click on the image, select Edit Alt Text. You can also select the image, go to “Picture Format” in the ribbon and select Alt Text.). Even if the image would otherwise be considered decorative, you will need to write alt text if the image is a link.
• Add a ScreenTip to email addresses. ScreenTips can be beneficial for screen reader users to know where a link is taking them. If you insert an email address in a presentation, highlight the email address, right click, edit hyperlink, select the ScreenTip tab and insert "Name Of's email."

Correct reading/focus order of slide content is important to screen reader users. A screen reader will read the content on a slide in the order you place it in on the slide. This order needs to make sense to screen reader users. 

• Using the Selection Pane (how to access selection pane on Mac, how to access Selection pane on Windows) you can go slide by slide to check Reading Order.
• The order the items will be read are from the bottom of the list up. So, arrange the items in the list with the first thing to be read at the bottom and work up.
• You can move slide items around (click and drag) to be in the correct order you want.

Two important things to note:

• Selection Pane and Reading Order rare 2 different ways to order your content. If you are using a Mac, you will only have access to the Selection Pane option. If you are using a Windows machine, there is an option for Reading Order. With Reading Order, the objects on the slide will appear in sequential, top to bottom order which is different than the Selection Pane. 
• Sometimes moving the Reading Order around can change the look of a slide, if this happens, you can undo the move and possibly group items together.

Ensure all slides have a unique, meaningful title. To check this, have your PowerPoint presentation open. Select the "View" ribbon and then select "Outline View." This brings up the entire outline of the presentation. The slides will be numerical. If there is not a title beside the number of the slide, add one. 

Add alternative (alt) text to all images and/or non-text content or mark as decorative. To do this, make sure you are viewing the presentation in the "Normal" view. Select the image you wish to work with. Right click on the image and select "View Alt Text." The righthand window panel will have an area to add alt text or mark the image as decorative. 

Check the reading/focus order of each slide. With the presentation open, select the "Home" ribbon, click "Arrange" and choose "Selection Pane." This Selection Pane shows all the objects on a slide and the order they will be read in by a screen reader. Pay close attention and remember that in PowerPoint objects are read by a screen reader beginning with the bottom list item first and the first list item last. Correct any out of place items by clicking and dragging them to their correct reading order spot. 

*Note, Selection Pane and Reading Order rare 2 different ways to order your content. If you are using a Mac, you will only have access to the Selection Pane option. If you are using a Windows machine, there is an option for Reading Order. With Reading Order, the objects on the slide will appear in sequential, top to bottom order which is different than the Selection Pane.