10 Ways to Make Your Slide Decks Accessible

Slide decks get built fast. A lecture the night before, a workshop the morning of -- we’ve all done it. Accessibility is often the first thing to slip when you're racing a deadline. But a few intentional choices, made as you build rather than after the fact, can mean the difference between a deck that works for everyone in the room and one that quietly leaves some behind.

Whether you're building in PowerPoint, Google Slides, or Canva, here are ten strategies to help your next presentation reach everyone who opens it.

1. Start with a Built-In Template

A blank canvas gives you no structural head start: no heading tags, no consistent color palette, nothing for a screen reader to key off of. Starting from a real layout means accessibility is baked in before you type a word.

• PowerPoint: Choose File > New from Template rather than starting from a blank presentation.

• Google Slides: Use File > New > From template gallery, including UMBC's branded templates.

• Canva: Search "presentation" in Canva's template library and start from a pre-built design rather than a blank frame.

Don't forget: if you're editing an existing deck that started as a blank canvas, it's worth rebuilding on a template rather than patching structure after the fact.

2. Keep Each Slide to One Idea

A crowded slide is hard to follow for every viewer, but especially for someone using magnification or a screen reader, working through it piece by piece. One idea per slide keeps the pace manageable.

• PowerPoint: Use the Outline view to check whether your slide titles actually summarize one clear point each.

• Google Slides: Break dense slides into two using Duplicate slide, rather than shrinking text to fit everything on one.

• Canva: Use Canva's multi-page presentation flow to spread a complex idea across two slides instead of one packed layout.

Don't forget: if you find yourself shrinking text to make it fit, that's usually a sign the slide needs to be split, not shrunk.

3. Choose Fonts and Styles That Are Easy to Read

Decorative fonts and heavy styling might look sharp, but they slow down every reader, not just the ones using assistive technology. Simple, consistent typography benefits everyone in the room.

• PowerPoint: Stick to sans serif fonts like Arial, Helvetica, or Calibri, and avoid ALL CAPS or excessive underlining.

• Google Slides: Use the built-in theme fonts rather than importing custom or script-style fonts.

• Canva: Filter Canva's font library to sans serif options, and limit each slide to one or two font pairings.

Don't forget: italics and underlining both signal "link" to many users. Save them for actual links, not emphasis.

4. Confirm Your Slides Read in the Right Order

Elements dragged and repositioned during editing don't always stay in a logical reading order, so what looks correct visually can come out scrambled for a screen reader.

• PowerPoint: Open the Reading Order pane (under Review > Check Accessibility) to see and adjust the sequence.

• Google Slides: Use Tab key navigation to click through elements in the order they'll be read aloud.

• Canva: Use the Objects panel to check the stacking/layer order of elements, since Canva reads top-to-bottom by layer.

Don't forget: this check only matters if you do it last — reordering elements during design is exactly when reading order breaks.

5. Write Alt Text That Explains Purpose

An image with no alt text is simply invisible to a screen reader, and alt text that just describes what something looks like ("a graph") skips the part that actually matters: what the audience is supposed to take away from it.

• PowerPoint: Right-click an image and select Edit Alt Text, or mark it decorative if it adds nothing instructional.

• Google Slides: Right-click an image, choose Alt Text, and write one to two sentences describing its purpose.

• Canva: Select an image, open Accessibility in the side panel, and add alt text there. Canva does not auto-generate this for you.

Don't forget: decorative doesn't mean "skip the alt text because you don't feel like writing it" -- it means the image truly adds nothing a viewer needs to know.

6. Give Complex Visuals a Text Companion

Dense charts, infographics, or diagrams often carry more meaning than a sentence or two of alt text can capture. A nearby caption or a linked summary fills that gap.

• PowerPoint: Add a one- to two-sentence summary in the speaker notes for any complex chart or diagram.

• Google Slides: Include a caption text box beneath complex visuals summarizing the key takeaway.

• Canva: Pair infographic elements with a short adjacent text block rather than relying on the visual alone.

Don't forget: if you can't summarize what a visual is teaching in a sentence, that's a sign the visual needs more support, not less.

7. Use Descriptive Hyperlink Text

"Click here" tells a screen reader nothing about where a link goes. They have to click through to find out. A descriptive link tells them upfront.

• PowerPoint: Replace generic link text with the destination's actual name (e.g., "View the syllabus" instead of "here").

• Google Slides: Use Insert > Link and edit the display text to be descriptive before publishing.

• Canva: When adding a link to text or a button, rename the linked text itself rather than leaving a raw URL visible.

Don't forget: a good test is reading just the link text out of context. If it doesn't make sense on its own, it needs a rewrite.

8. Check Your Color Contrast

Text that blends into its background is a barrier for anyone with low vision or color blindness, and it's an easy thing to miss when you're focused on branding colors, not readability.

• PowerPoint: Run the Accessibility Checker (Review tab) to flag any hard-to-read text contrast automatically.

• Google Slides: Google Slides has no built-in checker. Export as PowerPoint or PDF and run a checker there.

• Canva: Use Canva's built-in Accessibility view or an external tool like the WebAIM Contrast Checker before finalizing colors.

Don't forget: contrast that looks fine on your laptop screen can fail in a bright classroom or lecture hall. Check it under real presentation conditions when you can.

9. Don't Let Color Alone Carry the Meaning

If red means "wrong" and green means "right," a colorblind viewer has no way to tell the two apart. Pairing color with text, icons, or patterns keeps the meaning intact for everyone.

• PowerPoint: Add a label or icon next to any color-coded element instead of relying on color alone.

• Google Slides: Use shape or icon differences (not just fill color) to distinguish categories in charts or diagrams.

• Canva: Choose Canva chart templates that include data labels, not just color-coded legends.

Don't forget: a quick way to test this is to view your slide in grayscale. If the meaning disappears, so will it for some of your audience.

10. Caption and Describe Any Embedded Media

A video or audio clip embedded mid-presentation needs the same accessibility treatment as everything else in the deck: an uncaptioned clip is a gap, not a break from reading.

• PowerPoint: Use the built-in Subtitles & Captions feature under the Insert tab when recording narration.

• Google Slides: Link out to a captioned version hosted in YuJa or YouTube rather than embedding raw, uncaptioned video.

• Canva: Enable auto-captions on any video element added through Canva's video tools, and review them for accuracy.

Don't forget: auto-captions are a starting point, not a finish line. Always skim them for accuracy before sharing.

None of these strategies requires starting over or mastering a new tool. Most take a few extra minutes woven into work you're already doing: Picking a template instead of a blank slide, writing one real sentence of alt text instead of skipping it, checking contrast before you hit export. Start with just one or two on your next deck. Once they become a habit, the rest tend to follow.