Accessible PowerPoint (implementation guide)

2.2. Title of the slide

The title on the first slide is stored in the metadata, meaningful and easy to understand.

What is meant by this?

It is important to make the title of a presentation easy to understand and meaningful, which means that the title should be formulated in simple and clear words that adequately reflect the content of the presentation. The title should allow readers to quickly recognise what the presentation is about and what purpose it fulfils. This title must be stored in the metadata to make it easier for recipients to identify and organise the presentation.

Metadata is information that describes or identifies a presentation and is usually invisible to viewers. It includes various properties, such as the title, the author, the creation date, the file format and the size of the file. Keywords or catchwords can also be used as metadata to describe the content of the presentation and make it easier to find for later searches or archiving.

Why is it important?

A meaningful and easy-to-understand title that is stored in the metadata facilitates orientation and approval of a document for recipients who are dependent on speech output and screen readers. Recipients with visual impairments or learning difficulties cannot visually scan the presentation to determine whether it is relevant to them. Instead, they have to rely on voice output and screen readers to understand the content. A meaningful and easy-to-understand title can help them quickly grasp the content of the presentation and decide whether or not they want to continue reading.

An example of a meaningful and easy-to-understand title would be "Guide to document accessibility". This title gives the reader a clear idea of what the presentation is about. A bad title, on the other hand, would be "Accessibility", for example. This title is too general and does not tell readers specifically enough what the content of the presentation is about, which leads to irritation and a considerable amount of time spent by readers with screen readers and voice output.

How can I implement/check it?

There are different procedures for entering the title of a document in the metadata, depending on the operating system:

For Mac:

1. Click on "File".
2. Click on "Properties" in the "Summary" tab to access the metadata. 
3. Enter the title in the field provided.

For Windows:

1. Click on "File" in the top left-hand corner of the screen.
2. Click on "Information".
3. Click on the input fields under "Properties" and enter the title in the field provided.

To check whether the title is correctly stored in the metadata, you can click on "File" and "Information" again. Here you should find the title that you entered previously.

Whether a title is ultimately meaningful or not is up to you to decide. But remember that reading decisions should already be made by the title.