PowerPoint Check Accessibility Tool

PowerPoint has a built-in tool to check for common accessibility issues.

Check Accessibility

To open the Check Accessibility tool:

  1. Move to the Review tab
  2. Select Check Accessibility

This will open the Accessibility panel on the right side of the window. When the Accessibility panel is open, a new tab appears on the PowerPoint toolbar labelled Accessibility.

Use the Accessibility tab as a shortcut to various tools and features to help you fix accessibility issues.

In the Accessibility panel, check Keep accessibility checker running while I work.

This adds a message to the status bar to the bottom of the PowerPoint window. The message will update automatically as you add or change content. Accessibility: Good to go means you have no issues. Accessibility: Investigate indicates something is broken. Click the message to go directly to the Accessibility panel.

Consult Microsoft Support for more information about using the accessibility checker.

Results

The Check Accessibility tool will check for:

Errors

Missing alt text

Missing table header

Missing slide title

Default section name

Warnings

Missing audio or video subtitles

Hard-to-read text contrast

Use of merged or split cells

Check reading order

Tips

Duplicate slide titles

Duplicate section name

Intelligent Services

Review auto-generated alt text

Each of the above will be explored in greater detail in this course.

Check-in

While the Check Accessibility tool helps flag many errors, it does not check for every possible accessibility issue. In addition to the listed results, this guide explores manual checks you should do to maximize the accessibility of your content.

Windows v. macOS v. browser

There are slight differences to the tools and features available in PowerPoint depending on the environment in which you are working. Some may be as minor as the label on a menu or button, but some are more significant. To get the full features of PowerPoint work on the desktop version (macOS or Windows).

However, between macOS and Windows there is one significant difference. In the Accessibility panel on Windows, there is a menu for most errors that provides a shortcut to the tool needed to rectify the issue.

Read more about how to make PowerPoints accessible.

Next Steps

Return to the start here module to check your presentations for accessibility issues.

License

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Digital Accessibility On-demand Copyright © by Luke McKnight is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.