Creating Accessible Charts

Adding Charts to your Presentation

Charts can add important visual information to your presentations, but if you do not take care to make the data visible to all users, you may inadvertently create barriers to access. Follow the steps below to add charts to your presentation in a more accessible way:

1. Select Insert from the PowerPoint ribbon
2. Find the Illustration options and select Chart
3. For this exercise, choose a clustered column chart

The chart should apply to the body of your current slide and a data table with default information should appear on your screen. This data table allows you to create row and column headers along with their data. Changes to this data table will immediately update the chart embedded on your slide.

Making the Chart Accessible

To make this chart accessible, you will need to do the following:

1. Ensure that you have descriptive column and row headers in the data table
2. Select Chart Design from the ribbon
3. Select Add Chart Element from the options
4. Hover over the Data Tables option
5. Select With Legend Keys to add the data table into your presentation

With the data table fully exposed, a screen reader user can access the raw data that is creating the chart in your presentation. If your table headings are descriptive, then the user should have little trouble navigating the table and understanding your content.

Warning!

Not all charts allow their data table to be exposed to the end user. Please be careful when choosing a chart to pick one that can display data tables in your presentation.