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 Assistant panel on the right side of the window.

At the bottom of the Accessibility Assistant pane open Settings and check Keep accessibility checker running while I work. A message will appear in the status bar at 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 Assistant panel.

When the Accessibility panel is open, a new tab appears on the PowerPoint toolbar labelled Accessibility.

Screenshot of Windows PowerPoint Accessibility tab

Note, on macOS the Accessibility tab shows Selection Pane in place of Reading Order Pane. The difference is significant as the Selection Pane reads bottom-to-top, and the Reading Order Pane reads top-to- bottom. Read more on the Check Reading Order page.

Screenshot of macOS PowerPoint Accessibility tab

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

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

Results

The Check Accessibility tool will display results in the Accessibility Assistant pane, including:

Hard-to-read text contrast

Missing alt text

Missing audio or video subtitles

Missing table header

Use of merged or split cells

Missing slide title

Duplicate slide titles

Check reading order

Default section name

Duplicate section name

 

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).

Screenshot of Accessibility Assistant displaying options to rectify a missing slide title error including “add slide title” and “add hidden slide title”

However, between macOS and Windows there is one significant difference. In the Accessibility Assistant panel on Windows select any listed error for additional information and (in most cases) a button shortcut to help you resolve the issue. For macOS and browser version of PowerPoint, errors need to be fixed via the Accessibility tab or individual tools.

Read more about how to make PowerPoints accessible.

Next Steps

Return to the I want to module or use the back button in your browser to return to where you were.

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.