New PowerPoint Accessibility
Testing methods
Checking the accessibility of a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation is not a matter of clicking a single validation button. Given the inherent limits of automated tools, a rigorous audit calls for a methodical approach that combines software checks, structural inspection and screen reader testing.
This guide sets out a three-pass method designed to surface every type of defect, from invisible mechanical errors to reading order and visual rendering issues. It then relies on an audit checklist organised by theme, from slide structure to the presentation’s general settings, and graded by severity level. Finally, the presentation’s overall accessibility level is determined by the most critical failure found, ensuring that no major barrier penalises users of assistive technologies.
On this page
When to use it
- For any PowerPoint deck intended for external or internal distribution, to ensure it complies with accessibility standards such as WCAG 2.2.
- Systematically before presenting, publishing or distributing a file, by rigorously applying the three-pass method (automated check, structural inspection and rendering test with assistive technologies).
- Whenever you need to objectively determine a deck’s accessibility level (from Level 0, not accessible, to Level 3, accessible) using the audit checklist.
How it works
- Pass 1: Automated check: Run the built-in checker (
Review>Check Accessibility) to fix first the mechanical defects it detects reliably: slides without a title, duplicate slide titles, missing alt text, tables without a header row, non-descriptive link text. A clean result is a starting point, not proof of accessibility. - Pass 2: Structural inspection: Reveal the damage that is invisible from the slides themselves, using two views. Outline view (
View>Outline View) exposes slides with no real title and any text trapped in drawn text boxes. The Reading Order pane confirms the sequence on every slide with multiple objects; on older versions the Selection pane replaces it, with the order reversed. - Pass 3: Rendering, media and assistive technologies: Check the real experience with
Read Aloudor an actual screen reader such as NVDA, then verify contrast against the theme’s real colours, information conveyed by colour alone, video captions, automatic advance and looping motion in Slide Show mode, and the legibility of body text at the size it will actually be projected. - Severity-based assessment: Apply the thematic audit checklist and determine the deck’s final level based on the most critical failure found (Blocker, Major or Minor), rather than on a pass percentage.
Pass 1 – Automated check
PowerPoint’s built-in checker is stronger for decks than Word’s equivalent is for documents, because the defects it detects, missing titles, missing alt text, suspect reading order are precisely the ones that matter most here. Run it first.
How to run it:
- Open Review > Check Accessibility.
- Work through the Inspection Results pane, selecting each item to jump to it.
- Read the “Additional Information” section for the recommended fix.
- Re-run until Errors and Warnings are clear.
What it reliably catches:
- Slides with no title
- Duplicate slide titles, in recent versions
- Missing alt text on images, charts and objects
- Tables with no header row
- Reading order that it judges likely to be wrong
- Non-descriptive hyperlink text
What it does not catch:
- Alt text that exists but is meaningless
- A reading order that is technically set but wrong
- Colour contrast, in most versions, including text over images
- Information conveyed by colour alone
- Missing or inaccurate video captions
- Auto-advance timings and looping motion
- Body text too small to read in a room
- Content typed into drawn text boxes rather than placeholders
As with documents, a clean checker result is a starting point, not evidence that the deck is accessible.
Pass 2 – Structural inspection
Two views expose almost all structural damage in a deck, and neither is visible from the slides themselves.
- Outline View (View > Outline View), the single most useful audit tool for PowerPoint. It shows only slide titles and placeholder text. Any slide with a blank entry has no real title; any text visible on a slide but missing from the outline is trapped in a drawn text box and carries no structure.
- Reading Order pane (Review > Check Accessibility), walk every slide carrying more than one object and confirm the sequence. On older builds only the Selection Pane is available, where the order is inverted: the bottom item is announced first.
Working through Outline View first is efficient: it tells you which slides need attention before you open a single one.
Pass 3 – Rendering, media & assistive technology
- Run Read Aloud, or a real screen reader such as NVDA, over each slide and follow along. This is the only reliable way to confirm reading order.
- Test contrast on the actual theme colours, body text, titles, text on coloured fills, and text over images.
- Scan for anything distinguished only by colour: chart series, legends, status indicators.
- Play every embedded video and confirm captions are present, synchronised and accurate.
- Run the deck in presentation mode start to finish, watching for auto-advance, looping motion and flashing.
- View the deck at the size it will actually be shown, and confirm body text is readable at distance.
On this page
Severity meanings:
- Blocker: the deck cannot be navigated or understood reliably with assistive technology. Do not distribute.
- Major: usable but significantly degraded for some audience members.
- Minor: a good-practice issue to correct in the next revision.
| Check | Severity | WCAG 2.2 |
|---|---|---|
| A. Slide foundations – the deck-specific essentials | ||
| Every slide has a real title placeholder How: View > Outline View. Every slide must show a title. A blank entry means no title, even if text appears on the slide. |
Blocker | 1.3.1, 2.4.2 |
| Slide titles are unique and meaningful How: Read the Outline View list on its own. Repeated titles such as “Results” on six slides give no way to navigate between them. |
Blocker | 2.4.2 |
| Reading order is correct on every multi-object slide How: Open the Reading Order pane and walk each slide, then confirm with Read Aloud. Order follows the pane, not visual position. |
Blocker | 1.3.2 |
| Slide content sits in placeholders, not drawn text boxes How: Outline View shows placeholder content only. Text visible on the slide but absent from Outline View is in a drawn box. |
Blocker | 1.3.1 |
| Bulleted content uses the placeholder’s own bullet levels How: Click into the list and check whether indent levels respond to Tab, rather than being typed characters. |
Major | 1.3.1 |
| No empty placeholders showing prompt text How: Page through the deck in Normal view looking for “Click to add text”. |
Minor | 1.3.1 |
| B. Images & graphical objects | ||
| Every informative image has meaningful alt text How: Right-click each image > View Alt Text. Reject filenames and unedited auto-suggestions. |
Blocker | 1.1.1 |
| Charts and SmartArt carry a summary alt text How: Select the outer border of each object, not an inner shape, then View Alt Text. |
Blocker | 1.1.1 |
| No meaningful text is locked inside an image How: Look for screenshots of tables, quotes or labelled diagrams. If you cannot select the text, it fails. |
Blocker | 1.4.5 |
| Decorative shapes and images are marked as decorative How: Check each decorative object’s alt text pane for the “Mark as decorative” tick, so it is skipped rather than announced. |
Minor | 1.1.1 |
| Grouped objects do not collapse meaning How: Select each group and listen to how it is announced. A diagram announced as one unlabelled group fails. |
Major | 1.3.2 |
| C. Tables | ||
| Every table has a header row designated How: Click in the table > Table Design > confirm “Header Row” is ticked in Table Style Options. |
Major | 1.3.1 |
| No merged or split cells How: Scan each table for cells spanning rows or columns. |
Major | 1.3.1 |
| No table is used to lay out a slide How: Ask whether the content is genuinely tabular. Image grids and side-by-side prose in a table fail. |
Major | 1.3.1 |
| D. Media & motion | ||
| Video with speech has synchronised captions How: Select each video > Playback tab > confirm a caption track is attached. Auto-generated captions used unreviewed do not pass. |
Blocker | 1.2.2 |
| Visual-only information in video has a text or audio alternative How: Watch each video with the sound off. Anything essential conveyed only visually needs an alternative. |
Major | 1.2.3, 1.2.5 |
| Nothing plays or advances automatically How: Playback tab: Start should be “When Clicked On”. Transitions tab: “After” should be unticked on every slide. |
Blocker | 2.2.1, 2.2.2 |
| Nothing flashes or strobes How: Run the deck through in presentation mode and watch for rapid flashing in builds or media. |
Blocker | 2.3.1 |
| Motion effects are subtle and click-triggered How: Check the Animations pane for spin, bounce and zoom effects, and for anything set to loop. |
Minor | 2.2.2 |
| E. Text, colour & links | ||
| Body text contrast is at least 4.5:1 How: Take the actual theme colours and test each text-on-background pairing. Check text over images and over coloured fills specifically. |
Blocker | 1.4.3 |
| No information is conveyed by colour alone How: Look at chart legends, status indicators and colour-coded cells for a label, symbol or pattern alongside the colour. |
Blocker | 1.4.1 |
| Text over images remains legible How: Check every slide with text on a photograph for a solid or heavily darkened overlay behind the text. |
Blocker | 1.4.3 |
| Link text describes its destination How: Scan every link. “Click here” and bare URLs fail. |
Major | 2.4.4 |
| Body text is large enough to read at distance How: Roughly 18pt minimum for body text. A presentation readability requirement rather than a WCAG threshold, but treat it as mandatory for decks shown in a room. |
Major | Not applicable |
| F. Deck settings | ||
| The language is set correctly How: Select content on each slide > Review > Language > Set Proofing Language, and confirm it matches the actual language. |
Major | 3.1.1 |
| Passages in another language are tagged individually How: Select each foreign-language passage and check its proofing language separately. |
Major | 3.1.2 |
| The Title property is filled in How: File > Info > Properties. A blank Title leaves assistive technology announcing the filename. |
Minor | 2.4.2 |
| Essential information is not confined to the speaker notes How: Read the notes pane on each slide and check nothing the audience needs appears only there. |
Major | 1.3.1 |
Determining the accessibility level
The level is set by the most severe category that fails, not by how many items pass. Counting items would let a deck with no slide titles and an arbitrary reading order score above 80%, which misrepresents it entirely.
| Level | Condition | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Level 0 – Not accessible | One or more Blocker items fail. | Do not distribute. The deck cannot be navigated or understood reliably with assistive technology. |
| Level 1 – Partially accessible | No Blocker fails, but one or more Major items fail. | Usable but degraded. Remediate before external distribution. |
| Level 2 – Substantially accessible | All Blocker and Major items pass; some Minor items fail. | Acceptable for distribution. Fix Minor items in the next revision. |
| Level 3 – Accessible | Every item passes. | Meets the checklist in full for the deck as delivered. |