Captions and PDFsMaking PDFs, documents, video and audio work for everyone
Chapters (8)
  1. Why PDFs, documents and media need their own care
  2. Making a PDF accessible with tags, reading order and bookmarks
  3. Building Word files that turn into good PDFs
  4. Slide decks that turn into good PDFs
  5. Captions, subtitles and transcripts: what's the difference?
  6. When does a video need audio description?
  7. How to check a PDF for accessibility problems
  8. How to check a video or podcast for accessibility

Slide decks that turn into good PDFs

Last reviewed

Quick take

  • Every slide needs its own title.
  • Screen readers read slide parts in a set order, and it may not match what you see.
  • Check the order, then run the Accessibility Checker, then save as PDF.
  • Think twice before you post a slide deck as a stand-alone file.

Titles come first

Microsoft's advice is blunt: give every slide a unique title.[1] The reason is navigation. People who are blind, have low vision or have a reading disability rely on slide titles to move around.[1]

Think of a table of contents. A reader can skim the titles and jump straight to the slide they want. A slide with no title is a dead spot.

Three slide thumbnails. Slide 1 is titled Welcome, slide 2 has no title and is marked in red as hard to find, and slide 3 is titled Opening hours.
A slide without a title is hard to find.

Say a slide has just a big photo and a caption. It still needs a title. If the title would look odd on screen, Microsoft's page has a section on how to hide a slide title.[1]

Reading order

On a slide, parts can sit anywhere. A title, a text box, a picture. A screen reader needs one order to follow.

It reads the parts in the order they were added to the slide. That can be very different from the order you see.[1] You might add a picture first and the title last. Then the reader hears the picture first.

You can fix this with the Selection Pane, a list of every object on the slide. On the Home tab, choose Arrange. Then pick Selection Pane.[1] Drag the items into the order you want.

There's a twist. Screen readers read the objects in the reverse of the order listed in the pane.[1] So the item at the bottom of the list is read first. Put the title at the bottom.

On the left, a Selection Pane list from top to bottom: Picture, Text box, Title. On the right, the order a screen reader reads them: Title, then Text box, then Picture.
A screen reader reads the Selection Pane list in reverse.

Tables

Tables follow the same rule as in Word. Keep them simple, hold data only, and mark the header row.[1]

Run the checker, then export

Before you convert a deck to another format, run the Accessibility Checker and fix everything it reports.[1] Then save as a PDF with the tags option on, as shown in making a PDF accessible.

You can also test the deck yourself with a screen reader. Narrator comes with Windows, so there's nothing to install.[1]

A checklist with five ticked lines: a unique title on every slide, reading order checked, alt text on pictures, simple tables with a header row, and the Accessibility Checker run.
Five checks for a slide deck.

Is a deck the right download?

Slides are usually made to be shown with a speaker. Read on their own, they can feel thin. If your slides are mostly bullet points, a short web page may serve readers better. That's a choice, not a rule. Think about who will read it and how.

Sources

  1. Make your PowerPoint presentations accessible to people with disabilities, Microsoft Support (accessed 2026-11-10)