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To make a PowerPoint presentation more accessible to people with disabilities, save it in an alternate format that can be read by a screen reader. Your audience can open it on a personal device or port it to a Braille reader.

Create a Word version of a presentation

  1. In your PowerPoint presentation, select File > Export > Create Handouts > Create Handouts.

    Screen clip of PowerPoint user interface showing File > Export > Create Handouts.
  2. To display the presentation slides first, followed by the presentation notes, select Notes below slides.

  3. To include the slide images in the Word document, select Paste.

  4. To create the Word document, select OK.

Make the Word version of the presentation more accessible

To make your presentation handouts more informative to the screen reader users, add the slide titles as headings and alternative text to each slide image.

Add slide headings

People who use screen readers use headings to navigate the document.

  1. In the Word version, add a colon after each slide number, and then copy and paste the appropriate title from the PowerPoint presentation.

    Screen clip of the new Word document showing slide 1 with slide title, The slide shown in the image contains the slide title, the presenters’ names, and a background image of business people around a conference table.
  2. Select the slide title, and then select Home > Heading 1.

  3. Once you’ve finished adding titles, check the outline of the presentation. Select View > Navigation Pane. Sometimes people who use screen readers or Braille review the navigation first to get an overview of the document.

Add alternative text to slide images

The slides are embedded as images to the Word version of your presentation. As the screen readers don’t read the text in the images, you need to add alternative text repeating the slide text and describing the slide content.

  1. Right-click the slide image, and then select Picture > Alt Text.

  2. Type the alt text that describes the slide content, not only the possible image on the slide. Also, repeat the slide text in the description.

Check the document for accessibility

  1. Select Review > Check Accessibility.

    Screen clip of Word user interface showing Review > Check Accessibility with a red box around it.

If you’ve followed the Rules for the Accessibility Checker in your Word document, the inspection results shouldn’t show any errors.

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Make your PowerPoint presentations accessible to people with disabilities

Improve accessibility with the Accessibility Checker

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