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PowerPoint PDF Accessibility

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Summary

Authors can ensure that their PowerPoint presentations are accessible to people with disabilities even when distributing them in PDF format using the following approach:

  1. First, they should follow the practices in Make your PowerPoint presentations accessible to people with disabilities.
  2. Next, they should follow the steps in Create accessible PDFs to preserve the accessibility of the presentation in PDF format.

This article provides detailed information about the information PowerPoint includes in the PDF to make it accessible.

  1. PDF/UA tags are included to provide semantic information about the content in the presentation.
  2. Decorative content does not need to be read, so it is marked as <Artifact> in the Content Tree in the PDF and no PDF/UA tags are included.
  3. Bookmarks for each section and slide are included to make it easier to navigate the content.

PDF/UA Tags

Type of content Tags
Document 
<Document>
Slide 
<Sect>
Comment 
no tags
Decorative Object 
no tags
Object with Alt Text 
<Figure>
  Alt=alt text (object type)
Object other than Shape without Alt Text 
<Figure>
  Alt=blank
Shape without Alt Text, text, fill, outline, or hyperlink 
no tags
Shape without Alt Text with whitespace text or no text 
<Figure>
  Alt=blank
Shape without Alt Text with Equation 
<Formula>
  Alt=equation spelled out in words
Shape without Alt Text with non-whitespace text without Equation 
<Sect>
  text content
Shape with Alt Text with non-whitespace text without Equation 
<Figure>
  Alt=alt text + text (shape type)
WordArt without Alt Text or Decorative 
<Sect>
  text content
Table without Alt Text 
<Table>
  <THead>
    <TR>
      <TH>
        text content
      <TH>
        text content
  <TBody>
    <TR>
      <TH>
        text content
      <TD>
        text content
  <TFoot>
    <TR>
      <TH>
        text content
      <TD>
        text content
Table Header Cell 
<TH>
  Scope=Row, Column, or Both
Table Merged Cell 
<TH> or <TD>
  Row span=r
  Column span=c
Group without Alt Text 
tags for child objects
Summary Zoom, Section Zoom, and Slide Zoom 
<TOC>
  Alt=alt text
  <TOCI>
      <Link>
        Link - OBJR
        <Span>
Paragraph 
<P>
Bullets and Numbering 
<L>
  <LI>
    <Lbl>
      bullet or number
    <LBody>
      text content
Picture Bullets 
<L>
  <LI>
    <LBody>
      text content
Nested Bullets and Numbering 
<L>
  <LI>
    <Lbl>
      bullet or number
    <LBody>
      text content
      <L>
        <LI>
          <Lbl>
            bullet or number
          <LBody>
            text content
            ...
Text in different language 
<Span>
  Lang=language code
Header and Footer 
no tags
Objects that appear in Slide Master View 
no tags (except hyperlinks)
Title Placeholder on first slide in presentation or section or slide with Title or Section Header layout 
<H1>
Title Placeholder on all other slides 
<H2>
Hyperlink on Text 
<Link>
  Link - OBJR
  text content
Hyperlink on Object 
tag for object
<Link>
  Link - OBJR
  alt text
Note: the <Link> is a sibling of the tag for the object.

Artifacts

The following types of content are marked as <Artifact> in the PDF Content Tree and have no PDF/UA tags:

  • Decorative objects
  • Header and footer
  • Objects that appear in Slide Master View
  • Table borders
  • Text formatting marks including underline, strikethrough, highlight, and shadow
  • Text in SmartArt objects

Bookmarks

Bookmarks are included in the PDF for each section and slide in the presentation. The bookmarks use the section names and slide titles given in PowerPoint. Authors should provide a unique and meaningful title for each slide. See Title a slide.

Object Model

The PowerPoint object model includes the Presentation.ExportAsFixedFormat3 method to export the presentation as PDF with accessibility as described here.

  1. Bookmarks for each section and slide are only included when Bookmarks:=True is specified.
  2. PDF/UA tags are only included when DocStructureTags:=True is specified.
  3. The <Document> tag is only included when DocumentMarkup:=True is specified.
  4. A <Link> tag is only written as a sibling of the tag for the object when PromotedHyperlinkShape:=True is specified.

The older Presentation.ExportAsFixedFormat2 method does not include the Bookmarks, DocumentMarkup, and PromotedHyperlinkShape parameters. It works the same as the Presentation.ExportAsFixedFormat3 method with these 3 parameters set to False.

Availability

The information in this article is applicable to the following versions of PowerPoint.

  • PowerPoint for Windows Version 2408 and later.
  • PowerPoint for Mac Version 16.89 and later.
  • PowerPoint for iOS Version 2.89 and later.
  • PowerPoint for Android Build 16.0.18025.XXXXX or later.
  • PowerPoint for the web Build 16.0.18025.XXXXX or later.

It is available to customers with Office 2024 or Office LTSC 2024 and to customers with a Microsoft 365 subscription on Current Channel or Monthly Enterprise Channel. For customers with a Microsoft 365 subscription on Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel it will be available on January 14, 2025.