That’s why using patterns, icons, shapes, text, and positioning and hierarchy alongside colour helps you create slides with a clearer message.
This is a great habit to get into as, if your presenting space has bad lighting or a dodgy projector, you might find the colours on your slides don’t look quite how they did on your laptop. In that situation, it won’t just be those with CVD struggling to understand your slides.
Check colour contrast
Colour contrast is an important aspect of accessible presentations. Poor contrast means poor legibility and poor legibility means your audience will struggle to access your slides.
A contrast mistake we see all the time is text on top of images. The image is distracting, and the contrast is often poor, making the text hard to read. There are solutions to this, and you don’t have to lose your image! First, add a dark overlay to the image, then change the text colour to white and, finally, add a shadow effect. You can also blur images to make text pop even more.
Two slides sit side by side with the same picture on. On the left the text 'our bright furture; in yellow sits on top of the image and is hard to read. On the right, the image is darker, the text is white and has a shadow underneath. It is easy to read.
It’s not just imagery that . You need to be phone code japan aware of the contrast ratio between text and the background throughout your presentation.
According to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), for text a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 is required except for:
Text that is at least 18pt or at least 14pt andbold (a minimum ratio of 3:1)
Graphics that the audience needs to understand to understand the content (a minimum ratio of 3:1) There are exceptions, so you can find the non-text WCAG contrast guidance here.
Purely decorative text or text that is part of a logo (no minimum contrast requirement)
If this seems a bit confusing, as a rule of thumb we recommend sticking to a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 as a minimum for all text.
It’s easy to check colour contrast with our PowerPoint add-in BrightSlide. BrightSlide has a whole suite of useful tools designed to make PowerPoint easier to use and enhance its functionality including a colour contrast checker and colour contrast report.
You can download BrightSlide here. To access the contrast report, go to BrightSlide > Theme Colors > Color Contrast Report.
The report shows the contrast ratios for all the possible combinations of text and background colours based on your theme colours. You can use the report make sure all colour contrasts meet WCAG AA requirements.
Take a look at our blog post for lots more details on the importance of colour contrast and how to check it in PowerPoint.