PowerPoint Accessibility
Accessibility Checker
Use PowerPoint’s built-in accessibility checker to check for common issues. Note, these tools may not catch all possible accessibility issues.
To use the Check Accessibility tool:
- Select Review tab.
- Choose Check Accessibility button.
- The Accessibility Panel will open and show issues.
- Select each issue to see it highlighted in the document.
- Select the arrow next to each warning to see further information (Windows only).
In the Accessibility pane select Keep accessibility checker running while I work checkbox to see a realtime accessibility message in the bottom status bar. Click Accessibility: Investigate at anytime to open the Accessibility pane.
Checker Results
Like any automated tool, PowerPoint’s accessibility checker will not catch all accessibility issues. Here is a summary of what it does look for and how well it catches those issues:
| Element checked | Reliability of checker |
|---|---|
| Structure and use of heading styles | Good. Notes slides that lack titles and ensures users verify reading order of slides. |
| Colour | Moderate. Can find poor colour contrast but only within a coloured textbox, not against slide background colour. |
| Use of images | Moderate. Will find images that have neither Alt text, nor are marked as decorative as well as those where the Alt text is just the file name. But it cannot identify whether the Alt text is appropriate or even meaningful. It will find images that are not in line with the text. In-line images may not be as aesthetically pleasing but they are easier for screen readers to find. |
| Links | Poor. It does not check for link text. |
| Plain English | Poor. It does not check for this, but you can check yourself by switching on the readability stats as described in the section on Understandable Content. |
| Tables | Fair. It finds whether the table has the Header row marked. It may warn if tables have split or merged cells. |
| Miscellaneous | Moderate. Checks inserted videos for captions, warns users to check for captions on embedded videos. |
- This table is adapted from work originally developed by AHEAD and Alistair McNaught and is made available under a CC BY-NC-SA creative commons license. ↵
Automated tools built-in to many platforms that check for common accessibility issues. Are not to be considered a guarantee of accessibility.
