Accessibility

When creating accessible PowerPoint (or other presentation tools), there are key points one should be mindful of.  Think SLIC:

• Structure: Slide layout and outline panes
• Links: Add meaningful website name, url and hyperlink
• Images, graphics, or any non-text information: Add descriptive alternative text or caption
• Charts or tables: Create using the built-in PowerPoint slide layout or add descriptions. Add descriptive alternative text or captioning.

• Creating Accessible PowerPoint Presentations
• PowerPoint Accessibility- WebAIM's webpage provides key accessibility tactics for PowerPoint 2000-2010.
• OpenOffice Impress Presentations

Outline panel 

The outline panel contains a text outline of the content that appears in your slides. Reviewing this panel can help ensure the content on the slides is logically sequenced, that slide titles are unique and meaningful and that reading order is appropriate. The text in this panel may also be a good starting place for handouts or HTML alternatives to slides (more below). Alternative text for image and text boxes that are not part of the default layout will not be included in the outline view.

Notes panel

The notes panel allows the speaker to add notes and information that will not appear on the slides. It can be used to add additional information to printed handouts as well. Placing image or chart descriptions in this area is not reliable and should be avoided. This information may not be accessed by a screen reader, especially if the presentation is saved to PDF or some other format.