How to Make Accessible PowerPoint Presentations [The Checklist]
- Ink Narrates | The Presentation Design Agency
- May 6, 2024
- 7 min read
Updated: Sep 11
Patrick, one of our clients, once asked us a simple but sharp question while we were designing his accessible PowerPoint presentation. He said,
“How do you make sure a presentation is truly accessible to everyone, not just good-looking?”
Our Creative Director replied without missing a beat,
“Accessibility is about clarity first, design second.”
As a presentation design agency, we work on many accessible PowerPoint presentations throughout the year, and in the process, we’ve observed one common challenge: most people think accessibility is optional until they realize how many in their audience struggle to engage with their slides.
So, in this blog, we’ll give you a practical checklist on how to make accessible PowerPoint Presentations.
In case you didn't know, we specialize in only one thing: making presentations. We can help you by designing your slides and writing your content too.
What is Accessibility in PowerPoint Presentations
When we talk about accessibility in PowerPoint, we mean creating slides that everyone in your audience can understand and interact with — regardless of their abilities. It’s about removing barriers that make information harder to grasp.
At its core, accessibility is not about adding more design elements. It’s about designing with intention, so no one is excluded.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
Clear reading order
Screen readers should follow a logical path from slide titles to content.
Unique slide titles
Each slide should have a distinct title, so navigation is simple for assistive technology.
Alt text for visuals
Images, icons, and charts need alternative text that explains what they show.
High-contrast colors
Text and background must have enough contrast for people with low vision or color blindness.
Readable text
Font size and style should prioritize clarity over style.
Simple animations
Transitions and animations should not distract or overwhelm.
These might sound like small adjustments, but together they decide whether your message is universally understood or limited to only part of your audience.
How to Make Accessible PowerPoint Presentations
When you think about accessibility in PowerPoint, it might feel like a technical add-on or something only compliance teams worry about. But here’s the truth: if your slides aren’t accessible, they’re incomplete. You’ve done the work of putting ideas together, but if part of your audience can’t engage with them, you’ve left the job half done.
Let’s walk through a detailed checklist. These are the same principles we use internally when building accessible decks for clients. Each one matters on its own, but together they make your presentation bulletproof when it comes to inclusivity.
1. Start with a Logical Slide Structure
Think of your slides as a book. Every book has chapters, headings, and a sequence that makes sense. PowerPoint works the same way.
If you drop content on a slide without order, assistive technology like screen readers gets confused. Even for people without accessibility needs, poor structure makes your slides hard to follow.
Here’s what to focus on:
Use PowerPoint’s built-in layouts. Don’t insert random text boxes. Layouts create a reading order behind the scenes, which is what screen readers rely on.
One clear title per slide. Titles anchor your slide. Without them, people using screen readers don’t know where they are.
Keep hierarchy consistent. Subheadings should always look and act like subheadings, not like main titles.
We’ve audited decks where every slide looked different, titles were missing, and the content order jumped around. They looked fine on screen but broke entirely when read out loud. A strong structure is the foundation of accessibility.
2. What Fonts and Text Choices Actually Work
Fonts can make or break accessibility. You don’t need to pick boring options, but you do need to pick fonts people can read.
Here’s the rule we live by: if someone has to squint, you’ve lost them.
Font style: Stick with sans-serif fonts like Arial, Calibri, or Verdana. They’re easier on the eyes than decorative fonts.
Font size: Never go below 18pt. Ideally, 24pt for body text and larger for headings.
Spacing: Leave enough space between lines and paragraphs. Crowded text is harder for everyone.
Avoid all caps: It looks like shouting and is harder to read for people with dyslexia.
Limit italics and underlines: Use them sparingly. They reduce clarity.
It’s tempting to use a unique font to “stand out,” but remember, your words should be doing the talking, not the font. Accessibility means prioritizing clarity over style points.
3. Use Colors That Work for Everyone
Color is one of the most common accessibility mistakes we see. People love subtle gradients, pastel palettes, or text layered over busy images. It might look sleek, but for someone with color blindness or low vision, it’s a nightmare.
Here’s how to fix it:
High contrast is non-negotiable. Dark text on a light background, or light text on a dark background. Anything else risks being unreadable.
Don’t use color alone to show meaning. For example, if you have a chart where “green” means positive and “red” means negative, you need another marker like labels or patterns.
Test your slides in grayscale. If the content still makes sense without color, you’re good.
We’ve seen investors sit through decks where the financial highlights were red and green bars with no labels. Half the room nodded along, while the other half had no idea which bar was which. A little more contrast and labeling would have fixed it.
4. Add Alternative Text to Visuals
Images, icons, and charts aren’t just decoration. They carry meaning. But if someone can’t see them, that meaning is lost.
That’s where alt text comes in. Alternative text describes what the image shows so screen readers can convey it to people who can’t see it.
Here’s how to do it well:
Be descriptive, not literal. Don’t write “Image of a chart.” Instead, say “Bar chart showing sales growth from Q1 to Q4.”
Keep it concise. Two to three sentences is usually enough.
Skip decorative visuals. If the image is just for flair, mark it as decorative so screen readers ignore it.
We once worked on a product launch deck where half the visuals were sleek diagrams with no explanation. Adding alt text not only made it accessible but also clarified the message for everyone.
5. Check Reading Order on Every Slide
Even if you’ve used layouts, it’s worth double-checking the reading order. PowerPoint doesn’t always get it right.
To check:
Go to “Home” > “Arrange” > “Selection Pane.”
See the order in which items will be read.
Rearrange if needed so the title comes first, then the content, then any visuals.
Why does this matter? Imagine someone listening to your slide being read aloud and hearing “footer copyright, company logo, bullet point three, bullet point one.” Confusing, right? That’s exactly what happens when reading order is wrong.
6. Use Captions and Transcripts for Multimedia
If your presentation includes audio or video, you need captions. It’s not optional.
Captions help people who are deaf or hard of hearing, but they also help people in noisy environments or those who prefer reading over listening. Similarly, transcripts give a text version of spoken content so no one misses out.
Most modern video tools allow you to generate captions automatically, but always proofread them. We’ve seen AI captions turn “net profit margin” into “net prophet margin” more than once.
7. Keep Animations Simple and Purposeful
Animations are fun to play with, but they often cause accessibility issues. Flashing, bouncing, or fast-moving elements can be distracting at best and triggering at worst.
Our rule: animations should help clarity, not steal attention.
Fade and appear transitions are safe.
Avoid flashing or spinning effects.
Never hide critical information behind an animation.
Think of animation as seasoning. A little enhances the flavor, too much ruins the dish.
8. Make Hyperlinks Descriptive
We still see slides where links look like this: www.website.com/page?id=12345.
That’s not helpful to anyone, especially someone using a screen reader.
Instead, use descriptive text: Read our annual report or Download the full dataset.
It tells the reader where the link will take them and improves navigation.
9. Test Your Slides with Accessibility Checker
PowerPoint comes with a built-in Accessibility Checker, and it’s one of the most underused tools out there.
Go to “Review” > “Check Accessibility.” It will flag issues like missing alt text, low contrast, or unclear reading order.
Here’s the catch: the checker is good, but it’s not perfect. It won’t tell you if your alt text is vague or if your colors are just ugly. Think of it as a safety net, not the final word.
10. Practice with Real People
No checklist beats actual feedback. Share your deck with people who use assistive tools or who have accessibility needs. Ask them directly: Can you follow along? What’s confusing? What’s missing?
We’ve done this with clients and often discovered issues we’d never thought of. A table that looked fine to us was overwhelming to someone with ADHD. A video that played smoothly for us had no captions and left someone else in the dark.
Accessibility isn’t about perfection. It’s about awareness and constant improvement.
11. Keep Simplicity as the North Star
At the end of the day, accessible PowerPoint presentations aren’t about extra work. They’re about intentional work. Every design choice should answer one question: Does this make it easier or harder for my audience to understand?
If the answer is harder, strip it back. Simplicity is the ultimate accessibility tool.
Why Hire Us to Build your Presentation?
If you're reading this, you're probably working on a presentation right now. You could do it all yourself. But the reality is - that’s not going to give you the high-impact presentation you need. It’s a lot of guesswork, a lot of trial and error. And at the end of the day, you’ll be left with a presentation that’s “good enough,” not one that gets results. On the other hand, we’ve spent years crafting thousands of presentations, mastering both storytelling and design. Let us handle this for you, so you can focus on what you do best.