ADA Faculty: Leveraging PowerPoint Outline View and Layouts
Check Your PowerPoint Slides for ADA Compliance with Outline View
- Open View > Outline View.
- Review the outline to ensure slide titles and main content appear.
- If important content is missing, it is likely stored in text boxes instead of placeholders.
If Your Outline View Is Mostly Empty
- We recommend rebuilding the presentation using the COM PowerPoint Template.
- Create a new presentation from the template.
- Copy and paste content into the template's title and content placeholders.
- This is often faster and more accessible than fixing text boxes individually.
Avoid Using Text Boxes for Main Content
- Do not use inserted text boxes for slide titles or primary slide content.
- Text boxes may not appear in Outline View.
- Screen readers may not read text boxes in a logical order.
- Excessive use of text boxes can make slides more difficult to navigate for users of assistive technology.
Final Accessibility Check
- Review slides in Outline View to ensure all essential content is included.
- Verify the Reading Order using the Accessibility Checker (text boxes outside of layouts will often flag these errors)
- Confirm that slide titles are unique and descriptive.
- Run Review > Check Accessibility before sharing your presentation.
Tip: If important information is not visible in Outline View, consider moving it from a text box into a slide placeholder whenever possible.