Create an accessible PDF from PowerPoint

Give the slide a clear title and arrange text, charts and explanations in a meaningful sequence. Information available only in speaker notes or animation may be absent from the PDF. Include essential explanations in the version actually shared.

Read the slides without supplying the presenter’s usual explanation in your head. Three words may support a talk but make an incomprehensible PDF. What conclusion should readers draw? What do the arrows mean? Which assumptions explain the figures? Put the necessary explanation in content that actually survives export.

For example, a slide titled “Results” with bars labelled 12, 15 and 18 needs to identify the quantity and periods. If the point is an increase, state it clearly. Someone seeing the colours and someone hearing a description should receive equivalent information for understanding the comparison.

A dedicated reading version may work better. It need not reproduce every animation or slide change; it should preserve the presentation’s important information in a coherent independent sequence. Identify the reading version and keep both versions current if both remain in use.

Microsoft’s Reading Order pane shows the reading sequence and allows changes. Grouping can help where several shapes convey one image, but check its effect on text and alternative text. Review automatically generated descriptions too.

Read the pane’s objects as a sequence: title, introduction, chart, explanation. Reorder them where meaning breaks down. Pay particular attention to text boxes added late or copied from other slides; their visual positions may not match the reading sequence.

Do not routinely group an entire slide into one object with a long alternative. That can remove useful text and the ability to inspect individual parts. Grouping suits parts that function as one unit, such as a simple illustration. Check what the group conveys and whether important text remains readable.

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The slideshow first reveals Apply, then Attach evidence, then Submit. The PDF may show everything at once. Use clear step numbers and a correct reading sequence in the static version. Readers should not need to have watched the presentation to understand the instructions.

Open the saved PDF and compare it with the intended content. Are necessary explanations present? Has an animation become a final state with overlapping objects? Follow links and check that alternatives and structure survived.

Then perform a reading task without the presentation beside you: find the results section, explain the chart’s main message and identify the next step. If that requires remembering a spoken explanation, the problem extends beyond a missing tag. Develop the content before treating the PDF as a usable reading document.

• Run the accessibility checker before export.
• Use PDF export that preserves structure where supported.
• Inspect title and heading tags in the PDF.
• Check for duplicated, missing or out-of-order objects.
• Test links and chart explanations.

If the presentation mostly contains scattered prompts, a separate document with continuous prose may be more useful. It should include the same essential information and stay current alongside the presentation.