While the Microsoft Accessibility Checker is a helpful tool and is effective at recognizing accessibility issues, it does not always identify ways in which PowerPoint presentations could be optimally accessible.
For this reason, it is important to understand and apply basic accessibility practices. For full accessibility, be sure to:
Review the practices in each tab and apply them to ensure your Microsoft PowerPoint presentations are fully accessible.
All images must have an alt tag (also known as alternative text or an alt attribute). Alternative text is descriptive text that conveys the meaning and context of a visual item in a digital setting, such as in a document or on a web page. It is necessary for users who access content with screen readers and other assistive technologies to access the meaning of an image. Without alternative text, they will only know they’ve reached an image, not what the image shows.
Images that are decorative should be marked as such. Alternative text consisting of empty quotation marks (“”) is also acceptable. Screen readers and other technologies will recognize an empty alt tag, identify the image as decorative, and skip over it.
Because many users of screen readers use links to navigate content, providing links with no descriptive text (or with images that have empty 'alt' attributes and no other readable text) hinders these users. Descriptive links, or hyperlinked text that describes where a link goes, are necessary for screen readers and they help sighted users know where they are navigating.
Inaccessible Example 1: Writing a proper descriptive link can be tricky, but to learn more click here: https://webaim.org/techniques/hypertext
Inaccessible Example 2: Writing a proper descriptive link can be tricky, but to learn more click here.
Accessible example: Writing a proper descriptive link can be tricky, but you can learn more by visiting WebAIM’s Links and Hypertext.
Text color should be easily viewable and should not be the only indicator of meaning or function. Color balance should have at least a 4.5:1 ratio for small text and 3:1 ratio for large text.
Color contrast is important because text and background colors can determine how people interact with the content that is written in those colors. Low-contrast colors are difficult to read when text contrasts poorly with background colors, while high-contrast colors are easier to read when paired together.
When in doubt, these color combinations provide high contrast:
Use the Colour Contrast Analyser, a free app that analyzes colors and contrast, and displays results almost immediately, to check color contrast.
When emphasizing text, it is acceptable to use color with sufficient contrast if some other form of emphasis, such as bold or italics, is also applied. This ensures that screen reader users are aware of the text’s importance. If color is used alone, visually impaired or color-blind users have no way of accessing the meaning.
If you are using color to convey meaning, always provide another means of access such as bold/italicized text, additional text, or symbols. Avoid using color alone to convey emphasis; use bold/italicized text as well. Avoid using red and green in combination with each other as these are common colors for color-blind users to distinguish.
Consider the list below which uses color to indicate required and nonrequired courses.
Pink courses are required, yellow courses are not required
|
Course Number |
|---|
|
WRIT 100 |
|
INFO 110 |
|
IDIS 300 |
Because color alone is used to indicate which courses are required and which are not required, users who are visually impaired or color blind have no way of knowing which courses are which.
A more accessible version of this information could be conveyed through a table that uses color while also providing text that indicates whether the course is required.
|
Course Number |
Required? |
|---|---|
|
WRIT 100 |
Yes |
|
INFO 110 |
No |
|
IDIS 300 |
No |
Readability is the measure of how easy it is to read content on a page. To make content most accessible, consider the appropriate reading level of your audience. Keep language simple and succinct.
Like headings, unordered lists and ordered lists create structure. Sometimes users will create lists by pressing the tab button on their keyboard or entering symbols like asterisk. While this creates a visual list for sighted users, it does not allow those using a screen reader or other assistive technologies to access the structure.
To ensure list content is accessible for all users, use the formatting tools in your program/software to create the lists. Unordered lists, typically structured with a bullet, are appropriate for content with no specific order or sequence. Ordered lists, typically structured with a number, are appropriate to indicate order, sequence, and ranking.
Visit the Home tab in Microsoft PowerPoint to access the buttons for formatting lists.
In general, it is best to avoid tables if possible and present data another way. If tables are necessary, use a simple structure and ensure proper formatting. Sighted users can visually see the structure of a table, but tables must be properly formatted for screen readers and other assistive technologies to convey the relationships among elements in a table.
Use table headers to organize and define table data by columns and rows to make content accessible for sighted and screen reader users. Use the table formatting tools in Microsoft PowerPoint to create tables. Avoid using tables purely for layout purposes. Avoid merged, split, and blank cells and nested tables as these prevent screen readers from navigating the table effectively.