Initial Publication Date: May 28, 2026
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PowerPoint Accessibility Checklist

Document Structure Text Appearance Color Images Tables Lists Checker to PDF Resources

Introduction

This checklist is meant to guide you in creating and remediating PowerPoint documents to improve accessibility. Slides designed to be used alongside an oral presentation (as with traditional lecture or student presentations) are often inaccessible. Where the use of text, images, and speech are required to be used together, meaning is lost when one mode is missing or cannot be perceived by an audience member. Creating accessible slideshows helps correct this and also allows your presentation materials to stand on their own even without a presenter, providing context, explaining imagery, clarifying the order in which information is presented.

In this instance, accessibility means that anyone can use your documents, including people with blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, limited movement, speech disabilities, photosensitivity, and combinations of these (WCAG 2.1). The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) develops standards that have been adopted worldwide, most notably the WCAG2 (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) 2.1 AA, which ADA Title II Regulations updated to align with as of April 2026. Following these guidelines will also often make digital content more usable to users in general.

Please note that this list will support you in technically making PowerPoint documents more accessible. However, there will be instances in which making things more functionally accessible will require more fundamental changes (e.g., making a teaching activity meaningfully accessible to students regardless of disability).

Checklist

Apply the items in this list to your PowerPoint as appropriate. The best way to incorporate accessibility into your PowerPoint is to build it into your processes as you create them. Use this checklist as you build the habit to help ensure that you are not missing critical components. Additionally, if you are using your PowerPoint for a presentation, providing your slides ahead of time or at the start of your presentation is generally a more accessible practice.

Document Structure

PowerPoint has a number of tools to help you organize content and make it navigable for everyone and particularly those using screen readers, keyboard navigation rather than a mouse, etc.

  • Create an accurate and concise internal title that describes the topic and/or purpose of the document.
    • Update the internal title under 'Properties' or 'Info' which is typically found under 'File'.
    • A student handout for an activity may be titled with something such as the course name and the activity name or the content and 'student handout.'
  • Ensure the document language is correctly identified.
    • Often, Word will automatically check the language of a document. Double check that it is correct under 'Language', which is found within the 'Review' ribbon.
    • Unless you are regularly adjusting the language you are using in Word, it is unlikely that you will need to check this for each document.
  • Arrange all elements (e.g., text boxes, shapes) in the correct reading order.
    • Check the reading order in the 'Reading Order Pane' which can be found under 'Check Accessibility' in the 'Review' ribbon.
    • In the Reading Order Pane, you can drag the elements into the right order with the element labelled with '1' being the first element read. Additionally, you may uncheck elements that are purely decorative.
    • Doing this will ensure that assistive technology, such as screen readers, will read the elements of the slide in the intended order, matching the visual reading order.

Text Appearance and Spacing

  • Use fonts that are simple, familiar and easily-parsed.
    • Examples of such fonts include Arial, Calibri, Helvetica, Veranda, Tahoma, and Times New Roman.
    • If you are considering accessibility for dyslexic readers, you might consider using a sans-serif, monospaced font.
  • Attend to text size and the amount of text on each slide, particularly if you are projecting your slides.
    • The Hellen Keller National Center recommends "at least 44-60 point bold for Titles and 28-44 for body [text]" and "Use Bullets – 5-7 bullets per slide – no more than 6-7 words per bullet." See the Hellen Keller National Center's PowerPoint Guidelines for more information.
  • Create space within textboxes using the internal line spacing tools rather than the return/enter key.
    • Adjust the 'Spacing' before or after the line you are considering using 'Line and Paragraph Spacing' (symbolized with up and down vertical arrows with horizontal lines just to the right of them) under the 'Home' ribbon.
    • Adjusting spacing following this method will decrease the likelihood that learners using screen readers will experience difficulties navigating your spacing.
  • Write accurate and concise hyperlinked text that describes the URL destination. (Do not use 'click here,' 'here,' 'read this,' or the URL itself).
    • Avoid non-specific, non-descriptive or redundant link text and consider the following questions.
      • How will the link text sound to someone using a screen reader with voiceover? Be clear and concise about where the link will take the user.
      • Does the link text make sense out of context? Often while navigating using a screen reader, users will read from link to link without the surrounding text.
      • WebAIM also provides additional insight into the ways screen reader users navigate links that may be helpful in choosing appropriate link text.

Colors and Contrast

A unique consideration for PowerPoint slides is choosing a slide theme that has sufficiently high contrast between text and background. Note that not all the theme options provided by Microsoft meet this requirement, so ensure that you check the contrast of your slide theme in addition to applying the following items.

  • Choose text, highlight, and background colors that have a sufficiently high contrast.
    • Use a tool such as the WebAIM Contrast Checker to check the contrast. If you click on the rectangle under 'Color Picker,' a pop-up menu provides you with an eyedrop tool, so you do not need to know the hex value. (If you are on a Windows machine, the eyedropper tool will only work outside your browser if you are using Chrome or Edge.)
    • For small fonts (smaller than 18 pt or bolded 14 pt), the contrast ratio should be 4.5:1 between text and its background/highlight.
    • For large fonts (larger than 18 pt or bolded 14 pt), the contrast ratio should be 3:1 between text and its background/highlight.
  • Select colors for adjacent non-text objects (e.g., in figures or images) that have a contrast ratio of at least 3:1.
    • Use a tool such as the WebAIM Contrast Checker to check the contrast. If you click on the rectangle under 'Color Picker,' a pop-up menu provides you with an eyedrop tool, so you do not need to know the hex value. (If you are on a Windows machine, the eyedropper tool will only work outside your browser if you are using Chrome or Edge.)
  • Use other visual elements in addition to color to emphasize or differentiate text or objects.
    • For example, if you are differentiating some text using color, also bold it as this will be readable for those with colorblindness or those using screen readers.
    • You can also 'Inspect without Color' under the Accessibility ribbon that appears when you run an accessibility check to get a feel for what the contrast of your slides is like.
    • For additional support, refer to the University of Michigan's Accessible Color Use Examples.

Images and Figures

  • Write accurate and concise alt text for images or figures that describe the content or purpose and mark decorative images as 'decorative.'
    • There are different ways to access an image's alt text: right-click the image and select 'edit alt text...' from the pop-up menu or select the image and find 'Alt Text' under the 'Picture' ribbon. Alt Text is necessary to describe the content or the purpose of the image.
    • You can read about what makes alt text effective in WebAIM's Alternative Text documentation.
  • Do not use images of text in order to convey information.
    • This is inaccessible to assistive technologies and also prevents changing fonts which may be necessary or valuable for people with dyslexia or learning disabilities.
  • Create data tables for graphs and data visualizations.
    • These may be provided in a hidden slide or as a csv file or spreadsheet which could allow a visually impaired learner to dig deeper into a graph than whatever textual alternative is provided.
  • Review the Color and Contrast section of this page to ensure that the guidelines are adequately addressed by your images and figures.

Tables

Tables are used when they are the clearest and most concise choice for conveying information while remaining as simple as possible.

  • Do not use tables for formatting or layout purposes.
    • Use the accessible formatting options provided in the Document Structure section of this list or refer to Microsoft's documentation for achieving the format or layout you wish to achieve.
  • Similarly, don't use split cells, merged cells or empty cells for visual appeal.
    • Tables should be simple. If the table isn't visually appealing, change the table properties or the way you are presenting the information without taking inaccessible "shortcuts."
  • Mark the first row as a Header Row.
    • You can find this as a checkbox under the 'Table Design' ribbon when you are in a table. This will indicate that the top row consists of headings for the columns.
  • Make the Header Row repeat at the top of each page.
    • While in the header row of a table, either right click and select 'Table Properties' from the pop-up menu or go to the 'Table Layout' ribbon and select 'Properties'. From the 'Table Properties' pop-up, navigate to 'Row' and select "Repeat as header row at the top of each page."
    • With this checked, when your table is split across tables, the header row will show at the top of the table on the new page.
  • To more complex tables, add alt text that describes what is in the columns and rows.
  • Review the Color and Contrast section of this page to ensure that the guidelines are adequately addressed by your table

Lists

  • Create lists using the bulleted, numbered, or custom list features.
    • In the 'Paragraph' group under the 'Home' ribbon, there are three different buttons to make a list. They are symbolized by three lines with bullets, numbers or a combination of numbers and letters to the left.
    • When making long lists or multiple lists, attend to whether you want them to be formatted as a separate list or a long single list. You can alter this in the pop-up menu that appears when you select and right-click a bullet/number in your list.

Internal Accessibility Checker

All accessibility checkers have limitations regarding the accessibility issues that they are able to identify. Manually check (using this checklist!) your documents to ensure accessibility.

  • Use PowerPoint's internal accessibility checker to identify particular access issues and address them as described in the Warnings or Errors section in the Accessibility pane.
    • Find the checker as 'Accessibility Check' under 'Tools' and/or 'Review'
    • Note that this will not catch all errors. For example, if you are remediating a document, you will need to manually check some things (e.g., reading order, contrast) as the internal checker cannot or does not apply WCAG 2.1 AA guidelines.

Converting to PDF

We strongly recommend against converting your slides to PDFs. However in the event that you really must, you will need to use a method that preserves accessibility.

Select 'Save As' under 'File' in the toolbar, select PDF in the dropdown menu, and ensure that you check the option for 'Best for electronic distribution and accessibility'.

Do NOT use 'Print' and 'Save as a PDF' because it will make your slides inaccessible. Please note that the 'Read Aloud' function is not the same as a screen reader. You may be able to use the Read Aloud function on a document that is not accessible to users with screen readers, and it is therefore not a check for an accessible PDF.

For additional guidance, refer to Microsoft's 'Create Accessible PDFs'.

Resources

For additional information about digital accessibility and additional resources, review SERC's Accessibility Guidelines and/or SERC's Why Make Teaching Accessible web page. Reviewing Microsoft's PowerPoint Accessibility Documentation may provide additional technical support, while reviewing the WCAG 2.1 AA guidelines directly may provide additional support in understanding the motivation in making your documents more accessible.