Accessible Slidedecks Guide

Download the Accessible Slide Deck Guide

The accessibility guidelines below cover how to make slide decks visually accessible and easily navigable by screen-reader users.

Accessible Design Basics

Accessible design starts with the basics – font choice, colors, and slide layout.

Font Choice

To improve readability and understanding, it is important to use accessible fonts. Sans-serif fonts such as, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica or Tahoma are recommended. There are many sans-serif fonts available, when choosing one, avoid ‘condensed’ or ‘light’ fonts and fonts that have a small X-height (i.e., Aptos Light, Arial Narrow, Calibri, Avenir). Avoid decorative and serif fonts like Brush Script or Times New Roman.

Use a minimum font size of 24 points. If the presentation will be projected in a large room, this minimum may need to be larger, testing the readability from the farthest viewing point in the room is recommended. If the presentation will only be viewed as part of a video conference, the font size could be reduced to 18 points for small portions of text.

Do not use all caps (i.e., RESOURCES, MORE INFORMATION) or small caps (i.e., Agenda, Contact Us). All caps and small caps take away the natural shape of the words, which we rely on to quickly read. This forces the viewer to decode the words letter-by-letter. Abbreviations and acronyms can be written in all caps.

Layout

As you design your content, avoid using large blocks of text. Take advantage of the bulleted lists provided. Avoid putting too much information on one slide. You can use to 8x8 Rule – eight words per line, eight lines per slide. Maintaining the minimum font size above will naturally reduce the overall amount of text on a slide.

Colors

Use a strong color contrast between the background and text. An acceptable contrast ratio is a minimum of 7:1. You can use the WebAIM Contrast Checker to confirm the contrast. This tool can also be used to find higher contrast color combinations. It is also important not to use color alone to provide information. For instance, a bar chart that uses color to distinguish categories would need a pattern added. To check this, change everything to greyscale and see if all the information you are presenting with colors is understandable.

Start with Built-In Templates

The built-in templates provided by PowerPoint are designed to incorporate accessible slide design and layout. Each template has title and body text placeholders which creates a user-friendly semantic structure for screen-reader users. These templates are a starting point and can be modified to fit your organization’s style.

More information on the use of templates is below in the Screen Readability Section.

Accessible Content

The way you write your content will determine if the viewer understands it the first time they read it. This is often referred to as writing in plain language. Also, when writing hashtags, social media handles, and web addresses, use #CamelCase, capitalizing each word.

Top 10 Principles of Plain Language (Courtesy of PlainLanguiage.gov)

Write for your reader, not yourself.
Use pronouns when you can.
State your major points first, then go into detail
Stick to your topic.
Limit each paragraph to one idea and keep it short.
Write in the active voice. Use the passive voice sparingly.
Use short sentences as much as possible.
Use everyday words. If you must use technical terms, explain them on the first use.
Omit unneeded words.
Keep the subject and verb close together.

As you create your slide, make sure each one has a unique title. If a topic needs to be broken up among multiple slides, then follow the title with an indication of the sequence, like “Principle of Plain Language – 1 of 2”

Media Access

Images and videos need to be created with alternatives for people with sensory disabilities.

Here are those requirements:

Images need alt-text descriptions.
Videos need to have captions, which are turned on during the viewing of the video.
Videos should be shown with audio descriptions.

More information can be found in MOPD’s Audio Description and Captioning Guide.

How to Describe Images (Alt-Text)

If you include images in your presentation, a screen-reader user will not be able to decipher it unless it has been described using alt-text. Alt-text is a description of the image written by you that describes the image and is embedded with the image through the authoring software’s interface.

When writing alt-text descriptions, focus on the following:

Why are you using this image? (The answer frames the overall description.)
Who is in the image?
What are they doing?
Where are they?
When is this taking place?

Overall, your description should be concise and underscore the reason that you are using this image in the first place. See below for two good examples of alt-text, written for the same photograph but for different contexts in which the photograph is being used.

MOPD Social Media Post

An image of a crowd of people to demonstrate how context matters when creating alt text descriptions.

Hundreds of people with various disabilities await the start of the 2018 Disability Pride Parade carrying colorful balloons, signs, and banners.

Photography Blog Post

A crowd of people who are all in focus whether in the foreground or background.

Tips for Describing Images

For logos, the alt-text should follow this pattern: “[Organization Name] Logo”
For event flyers, include all the event details in the flyer first. Then briefly describe any logos and images that are on the flyer.
Space out acronyms like this “N Y C Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities logo”
For graphs and pie charts, include the name, what it is conveying and some trends such as highest point or lowest point
For infographics, briefly describe the images and focus on the message that the infographic is conveying. Include all the text that is in the image in your alt-text

Adding Alt-Text Descriptions

Depending on what software you are using, there are different ways to add image descriptions.

Adding Alt-Text in Microsoft 365

Screenshot of alt-text being added to an image. The image is a New York City Seal and it is being highlighted in a box. The body of the alt-text reads, New York City Seal.

Right-click on your image.
Select “View Alt-Text.”
Write your description in the ‘Description’ field.
If an image is decorative (which means it provides no addition meaning to reader), use the ‘Mark as Decorative’ checkbox.

See the Resources Section for information on adding alt-text with other authoring software.

Screen Readability

Access technologies (AT) rely on programmatic information to give the user information about the structure of the content. These guidelines ensure that programmatic information is available. The focus is on PowerPoint, but additional information on other platforms is available in the Resources Section.

As mentioned above, start with a built-in template. These use PowerPoint’s Master Slide and Layouts feature. The master slide and layouts contain all the elements of the design that would repeat. Commonly, these are logos and slide numbers. Placing these repetitive items in the master slide or layouts will hide them from access technology, providing a streamlined experience for AT users.

Using the Master Slide & Layouts

Go to the ‘View’ tab in the ribbon and click on ‘Master Slide’.
Use the Master Slide to design overall look. Anything that would repeat on every slide can be placed here.
Use the layouts to design overall slide types. The templates include several layouts. Feel free to modify them, deleting any that are not needed.
Make sure that each layout has a title placeholder. Content placeholders can also be used on these slides. The format of the text in these placeholders will carry through as you create your slides.

Additional PowerPoint Templates Online can also be downloaded.

Reading Order Pane

The Reading Order Pane lets you set the order the content is read by AT. It also allows you to quickly hide decorative or repetitive items and see graphical items alt-text descriptions.

Using the Reading Order Pane

Click on the ‘Accessibility’ item in Status Bar, then in the Ribbon choose ‘Reading Order Pane’.
Make sure the title is the first item
The body and relevant images would then follow, in a logical order
Uncheck any items screen readers should skip, like slide numbers and decorative elements

The reading order should be checked on every slide. Additionally, it is recommended to use the Accessibility pane to check for other issues. This pane can remain open as you create the deck, and it will flag issues as they occur.

Note: When sharing the deck, it is best to share it as a PPT file. Exporting to PDF makes the content less accessible and can be a frustrating reading experience for screen reader users.