PowerPoint 2016 - Accessibility

Overview — PowerPoint 2016 Accessibility

This practical guide from Kennesaw State University focuses on using PowerPoint 2016’s built‑in features and authoring techniques to make slide decks accessible to people with diverse abilities. Emphasizing semantic slide structure, keyboard navigation, descriptive alternative text, clear visual design, and verification with PowerPoint’s Accessibility Checker, the guide blends concise explanations with step‑by‑step walkthroughs so creators can adopt accessible habits during regular authoring workflows.

What you will learn

• How to write meaningful alternative text for images, charts, and complex visuals so screen readers convey the core message.
• Keyboard navigation and ordering techniques (Access Keys, tab order) for authoring and presenting without relying on a mouse.
• Design principles that improve legibility: accessible font choices, spacing, color contrast, and avoiding reliance on color alone.
• Using built‑in slide layouts, templates, and proper table structures to preserve semantic order for assistive technologies.
• How to run, interpret, and remediate issues identified by the Accessibility Checker and practical tips for final verification.

Core topics and practical skills emphasized

The guide weaves conceptual context with hands‑on tasks: creating accessible templates, ensuring logical reading order and slide titles for navigation, and converting complex tables and charts into formats that assistive technologies can interpret. It also addresses accessible multimedia workflows—adding captions or transcripts—and explains how to prepare handouts and web‑posted slides while maintaining accessibility. Clear examples and short exercises help you apply recommendations directly within PowerPoint 2016.

Who will benefit

Recommended for educators, trainers, instructional designers, content creators, and accessibility advocates. Beginners will gain foundational skills like alt text and keyboard navigation, while more experienced authors will find checklists and remediation strategies for compliance and usability. The guide is practical for individuals and teams working to incorporate accessibility into standard presentation workflows.

How to use this guide effectively

Work through sections as you build or revise a deck, practicing each technique on a sample slide. Add alt text as you insert visuals, set slide titles consistently, and check reading order early in the editing process. Run the Accessibility Checker regularly and, when possible, test slides with a screen reader. Use the suggested mini‑projects—creating an accessible deck, auditing an existing presentation, and producing accessible handouts—to reinforce skills and demonstrate measurable improvements.

Practical next steps

• Apply one accessibility improvement per slide (unique titles, alt text, contrast adjustments) and then run the Accessibility Checker.
• Create a short team checklist based on the guide to standardize pre‑publication checks.
• Practice presenting using keyboard commands and validate playback of captions or transcripts for multimedia.

Learning context

Category: Accessibility. Level: Beginner–Intermediate. Prior familiarity with PowerPoint editing is helpful but not required. The guide is designed for self‑paced learning and immediate application in real presentations.

Takeaway

By following these practical workflows and built‑in tools, you can make PowerPoint content more navigable, comprehensible, and inclusive. The recommendations are intended to integrate into normal slide creation so accessibility becomes part of how you design and share presentations, not an afterthought.