Common PowerPoint Accessibility Issues Flagged by Panorama

All Microsoft PowerPoint files should be accessible. Microsoft has a basic accessibility checker within PowerPoint which should be used while your PowerPoint is being created. Refer to the helpful resource- Creating Accessible PowerPoint Presentations to ensure you are creating accessible presentations.

The Panorama accessibility checker within eLearn may flag accessibility issues which aren't caught by the PowerPoint accessibility checker. This article identifies commonly flagged accessibility issues in PowerPoint according to Panorama and addresses how to fix them.

When remediating existing PowerPoint presentations for accessibility, please complete the accessibility work within Microsoft PowerPoint. Open the original Powerpoint file or download it from eLearn and then begin your accessibility work. Do NOT attempt to fix the PowerPoint accessibility issues within Panorama. Once you fix the identified accessibility issues, replace the new accessible file in eLearn with the file that had the flagged accessibility errors. 

Special Note: If you have a publisher made PowerPoint file with accessibility issues, consider reaching out to them to ask if they have an accessible version of the PowerPoint. Many publishing/textbook companies are providing accessible version of files now, as they are also working to meet accessibility initiatives.

Check reading order of slide.

Reading order is an importance part of accessibility for PowerPoints and PDFs. It means that assistive technology like screen readers know what to read aloud in what order, which can be confusing when there are a lot of images and text. In both PowerPoint and PDF, accessibility checkers can help you set and check the reading order to make sure they are correct. Because this is something that must be done manually, by humans, accessibility checkers will always remind remediators that reading order must be manually checked.

If Panorama flags this as an accessibility error, you need to verify the reading order is correct on the content of each slide Panorama has flagged with this error. This means you must open the file in Microsoft PowerPoint and navigate to the slides Panorama labeled as needing a reading order check. Often times, when this error occurs, the PowerPoint accessibility checker will say there are no accessibility issues but Panorama labels certain slides as needing checked. 

In order to check and correct the reading order of the content on the slide(s) in Microsoft PowerPoint, complete the following:

1. With your presentation open, select Review > Check Accessibility. 

2. Navigate to the slide(s) Panorama labeled as needing a check for reading order.

3. Select Reading Order Pane within the Accessibility tab to open the reading order list of the objects on the slide. 

Understanding and Adjusting Reading Order

Objects are listed in the order that the screen reader will read them in.  The number next to each object indicates the position in the sequence. Objects without a number will be skipped because they are marked decorative.

If the order of the objects isn't logical, people using screen readers will have a difficult time understanding the slide.

To change the order that the objects are read in:

1. Select one or more items in the list. (Use Ctrl+Click to multi-select).

2. Drag the selection upward or downward, or click the up arrow (Move Up) or down arrow (Move Down).

Verify and Upload to eLearn

Once you have verified the reading order is correct on the slide(s) Panorama identified as needing a reading order check, complete the following:

1. Save the PowerPoint file. Upload it to eLearn, replacing it with the PowerPoint file which was previously flagged in Panorama.
2. Once the Panorama Accessibility Report loads, it will likely still have the same reading order accessibility issues flagged. 
3. Since you have just manually verified the reading order is correct on the flagged slides, click on the color-coded Panorama accessibility icon on the course page.
4. Click View under the words Accessibility Report.
5. Within the Accessibility Report, where the reading order issue is shown, click Check Issue.
6. Click the box beside "Verify Reading Order" since you just manually verified the reading order in the file.
7. If there are multiple instances of this issue which you manually checked, you may click another box to “Add change to all instances of this issue”.
8. Then click “Add Fix”.
9. Then click “Apply Fixes” to review the accessibility changes and apply them to your file.

Insufficient contrast between foreground text and background.

The accessibility checker within PowerPoint does not check for the contrast between text and background elements; only text on a shaded text box or shape. Likewise, Panorama checks the contrast of text against its background even if an image is used for the background. There is a known bug in Panorama that PowerPoints can at times be flagged for insufficient color contrast even if the color contrast is compliant. Please confirm this issue before fixing it using the Color Contrast Analyser tool which is located in the Software Center on Vol State computers. If you don’t confirm color contrast is indeed an issue, you could actually be making the color contrast non-compliant.

Note: Color combinations need to have a green checkmark next to the WCAG 2.1 boxes in the Color Contrast Analyser tool.

Solution if the issue is actually the color of the text vs. the background:

1. DO NOT fix this issue using Panorama. Go to the original PowerPoint file.
2. In PowerPoint, Click on “Home”.
3. Select the text that is flagged in Panorama as too similar to the background color.
4. In the Font section, locate the button with the letter A with the color under it.
5. Click on the down arrow beside that button and change the text to a color that stands out from the background more.

Solution if the issue is pictures and/or textboxes overlap:

1. In PowerPoint, Click on “Home”.
2. Select the text box that is flagged in Panorama as too similar to the background color.
3. If the text box overlaps with another text box or a picture. Resize the box, picture, or both so that they no longer overlap. *Using the “send object to the front or back” feature will not work.

Item does not have an alternative description.

PowerPoint presentations are more reliant on images than other types of documents and compensate with brief bullet points. Screen reader users can't understand the visual content of a slideshow without alternative descriptions for images relevant to the presentation. Slideshows also frequently use decorative elements that do not need to be read out loud by screen readers.

NOTE: Some images may already have alternate text that is inaccurate or not descriptive, such as a filename or URL. Always double check alt text in PowerPoint by right-clicking each image and selecting View Alt Text.

In order to remediate the accessibility issue identified in Panorama as an item does not have an alternative description, complete the remediation work in Microsoft PowerPoint by following the steps below:

1. In PowerPoint, Right click on the item / image.
2. Click “Edit alt text”.
3. If the image is purely decorative and a visually impaired student doesn’t need the information, click “Mark as decorative”.
4. If the image contains information that a visually impaired student does need, then type up a description in the box provided.

For more information about alt-text, refer to the Alternative Text (Alt-Text) resource and the Images section of the Creating Accessible PowerPoint Presentations resource.

The font size is smaller than 9 points.

1. In PowerPoint, Click on “Home”.
2. Select the font that is smaller than 9 points and from the drop-down menu in the Font section, increase the text size to 10 points or higher.

The hyperlink text is not descriptive.

1. In PowerPoint, Right click on the hyperlink.
2. Select “Edit hyperlink”.
3. Beside “text to display”, delete the address and type in what it is. Example: University of Michigan's Animal Diversity Website.

For more information about meaningful links, refer to the Links section of the Creating Accessible PowerPoint Presentations resource.

The slide does not have a title.

1. In PowerPoint, Click on “Home”.
2. Right click the slide that is missing a title.
3. Go to “Layout”, select “Title and Content”.
4. Then on the slide, click on the box at the top of the slide and type in a title for the slide.

Note: If your version of PowerPoint is up to date, use the accessibility checker in PowerPoint to help find slides with missing titles and add hidden slide titles if desired.

The title is missing from the document's properties.

1. In Microsoft PowerPoint, Click on “File”.
2. Click on “Info”.
3. On the right side of the page underneath Properties, click beside "Title” to type in a title.