There’s lots we can do to make our presentations and events more inclusive and accessible. And most of them are pretty easy, or require us to do less rather than more.
Summary:
- Have one thing per slide, in large clear text, written in plain language.
- Have text alternatives for non-text content like images and video.
- Avoid animations like slide transitions and GIFs.
The event
- Publish and draw attention to your Code of Conduct.
- Share slides before the talk, or with a link on the first slide, so that the audience can follow along.
- Put supporting content, such as speaker notes, into a supporting document (e.g. blog post).
The presentation
- Keep each slide short and to the point. Have one thing per slide.
- Make sure each slide has a unique and meaningful title.
- Keep links in slides short.
- Use plain language. Try and avoid jargon, acronyms, unusual words, and abbreviations.
- Check the reading level.
- Use incusive language and don’t make assumptions about your audience. Don’t be sexist, racist, ableist, or offensive.
- Use large text.
- Choose a readable sans serif font. Use bold sparingly, don’t use italics, and don’t use ALL CAPS.
- Avoid putting content at the bottom of slides.
- Ensure high colour contrast between the text and the background. Take extra care with text over images.
- Don’t use only colour to convey information. Use icons and text too, or instead of colour.
- Provide text alternatives for content images, including charts. The text alternative should convey the function and meaning of the image.
- Explain any visual information.
- Provide captions and audio descriptions for videos.
- Don’t use slide transitions.
- Avoid animations for slide content.
- Use animated GIFs sparingly, or not at all, and don’t set them to loop.