Strategies

Related Guidelines1: WCAG 1.3.1, WCAG 1.3.2, WCAG 2.4.6

Whether you’re sharing lecture notes, providing resources, or otherwise sharing slides with students, there are several things you can do to help make your content more accessible. The following strategies are especially important if you plan to share slides with students, via Canvas or another platform, to review in their own time:

  • Try to add a unique title to each slide of your presentation. Focus on making sure the title is concise, but also that it describes the slide’s content.
  • Stick with a provided template: For example, use the title text box that comes with a slide template/layout to enter your title. The title text box that comes with the slides templates/layouts has HTML code for screen readers.2 In other words, the screen reader will understand the structure of the information you’re providing, and this will help students more easily understand the course content and context. If you cannot use a slide template or layout, there are ways to ensure the text box has the correct HTML code, but this process is specific to the presentation tool you’re using. 

The guidelines regarding titles and headings are slightly different for slide presentations than for documents. For document guidelines, visit Document Headings.

Slide Template/Layout with a Title Text Box

Specific Tools

Google Slides

Here’s how to add a layout with a title text box in Google Slides:

  1. Click Layout in the editor.
  2. Choose a layout from the drop-down menu that already has a title text box.
Slide Layouts in Google Slides

For additional strategies for adding a title to a slide in Google Slides, see: Add a title, heading, or table of contents in a document

Microsoft PowerPoint

Here’s how to add a layout with a title text box in Microsoft PowerPoint:

  1. Click Layout in the editor.
  2. Choose a layout from the drop-down menu that already has a title text box.
Slide Layouts in Microsoft PowerPoint

For additional strategies for adding a title to a slide in Microsoft PowerPoint, see
Give every slide a title.

Tips

Hide the Title
Title Text Box Above the Slide

Sometimes having a title displayed does not suit the purpose of the slide (e.g., a slide where the focus is an image).

If you don’t want to include a title for the purposes of your real-time presentation, you can still use a title to make the slide accessible for students to reference later. To do this, just click and drag, or use the arrow keys, to move the title text box above the slide. This will make sure that the title isn’t visible when you present in the slideshow/full-screen mode, but the slide will still be accessible to students who rely on screen readers. 

Accessibility Checker

Some programs can help you to search for and track accessibility errors. Microsoft PowerPoint has an Accessibility Checker that generates a list of errors.

Tip: While we encourage you to make use of accessibility checkers, this technology is not perfect and cannot flag all errors. Because of this, if possible, we recommend doing a manual review as well.

For more detailed information about the accessibility checker in Microsoft PowerPoint, see Microsoft’s Improve Accessibility With The Accessibility Checker.

Context

Why does each slide need a title?

Having a title on each slide can provide context and structure for your students, especially when you’re not there to talk them through the information outside of class. For some students, particularly those who depend on screen readers, a slide title is critical to help them organize the information.

Why use the slide templates/layouts?

A key reason to use previously created templates and layouts is because the only way a screen reader can distinguish a title from regular text is if the text box is labeled as a title in the HTML. The title text boxes in the built-in templates and layouts typically have the correct HTML without the instructor having to take any additional steps. 

Why are these strategies important if you upload your slides to Canvas or another website? 

If you make the slides available to learners outside of class, they will need to be able to navigate through the slides on their own. Some learners (such as those using screen readers) will not be able to read the contents of a slide if they were not designed using the above strategies.

  1. These links are to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) associated with the strategies on this page. Review Our Approach for more information about WCAG.
  2. A screen reader is a type of specialized text-to-speech assistive technology.