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PowerPoint Accessibility

Formatting and Styles to Avoid in PowerPoint

The following formatting and object types are not communicated to assistive technology or present significant barriers to some users and should be avoided:

  • Strikethrough
  • Highlighting
  • Dropcap
  • Word Art, Smart Art, text effects
  • Ungrouped related shapes
  • Watermarks
  • Symbols, except for the following safe characters:
    • @ (the at symbol)
    • & (ampersand)
    • / (slash)
    • © (copyright)
    • ® (registered)
    • ™ (trademark)
    • ¶ (paragraph)
    • • (bullet)
    • $ (dollar)
    • € (Euro)
    • £ (British pound)
    • ¥ (Yen)
    • % (percent)
    • ½ (one half)
    • ¼ (one fourth)
    • ¾ (three fourths)
    • ° (degrees)

License

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Accessibility Handbook for Teaching and Learning Copyright © 2025 by Briana Fraser, Luke McKnight, Cheryl Colan, and Max O'Neil is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.