Training Question: What's the Most Accessible Presentation Software? | Tough Topic Thursdays

Here's what I found comparing accessibility features of some of the major presentation software platforms: AhaSlides, Poll Everywhere, Mentimeter, and Slido.

September Feature

The Tough Topic Thursdays series is doing some deep dives this month, looking into specific questions related to disability and neurodivergence in the areas of Talent Acquisition, Employee Onboarding, Training and Development, and Performance Management. I’m getting to the good stuff - pulling out some questions I’ve been asked during conference Q&A and some archive pieces that never quite made it around. Stay tuned for the focus area that applies best to your work!

We’re also getting excited about something coming on October 1st for National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) - are you in? We’re kicking off the month with a LOT of celebration this year!

Keep reading to the end for the details.

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A version of this article was published in April 2024 on the Inclusive Pixelation website: https://inclusivepixel.com/accessible-presentation-software/ - I have updated it with current information below!

Accessible Presentation Software

Accessibility is a crucial consideration for trainers when choosing software, not just a matter of compliance, but a fundamental pillar of effective and inclusive learning. The right interactive tool can either be a bridge to learning for all participants or an insurmountable barrier for some. An effective training session is one where every person - regardless of vision, hearing, mobility, or cognitive differences - can fully engage with polls, Q&As, and quizzes. This article focuses on breaking down the practical accessibility features of these top platforms, providing trainers with the essential insights needed to select a tool that guarantees equal participation for every learner.

AhaSlides

The most popular tool, AhaSlides, seems to be missing some critical accessibility features for the participant interface. In their words:

While accessibility has always been part of our product thinking, a recent internal audit shows that our current experience does not yet meet core accessibility standards, particularly in the participant-facing interface. We share this transparently because acknowledging limitations is the first step toward meaningful improvement.

This, believe it or not, is a huge improvement over the last time I evaluated AhaSlides. They didn’t have any pages in their knowledge base or anything else I could find about their accessibility, and now they have a full page dedicated to their current limitations. Check that out here: https://ahaslides.com/accessibility/

As of August this year, they even have a VPAT, for the audience view only. It’s a start!

Poll Everywhere

Poll Everywhere surprised me with having their VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) readily available. From their page on accessibility, they outline their features (keyboard navigation, text alternatives for media, and built-in compliant color contrast, among others) and provide the full document for download. Poll Everywhere is more of a tool to add interactivity to an existing presentation built in other software (PowerPoint, for example) than it is to create an entire presentation from scratch, so you’ll need to use more than one tool to create your presentation.

Slido

Honorable mention goes to Slido - while it wasn't as robust a tool as I wanted, it seems somewhat accessible. They also have a VPAT available from 2023 on their accessibility help page, but it highlights where some of the accessibility features fall short. For example, they don't completely support ALT text for images and some of their text and non-text elements do not meet contrast ratio requirements. They do, however, outline some of the ways to use Slido with assistive technologies and keyboard navigation. Recent chatter in the help threads suggest an updated VPAT is on the horizon.

Mentimeter

I don't think I'll be able to leave my trusted Mentimeter just yet, because I believe they excel in accessibility over the other full presentation software platforms I researched. Not only can I add ALT text, I get a warning on every slide where I haven't done so! The built-in color contrast checker is very handy too - again, a warning shows up on my slide designer, and in my presentation accessibility report. (Yes, this exists!) Mentimeter also provides a full accessibility statement and VPAT, and help and blog articles about accessibility features as they are developed.

Final Decision

I was quite impressed with Poll Everywhere, but I was looking for a tool to create my entire presentation with instead of an embeddable option, so Mentimeter is the accessibility winner! Nothing else comes close for accessible presentation software, if you're looking for slide/content creation tools as well.

Stick around for a bonus Training Tough Topic - we’re looking at tools for creating handouts and slides too.

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Reader Bonus!

What’s this big deal happening on October 1st? We’re so excited to be sharing some new ways to learn from Inclusive Pixelation, dedicated to Making Work Accessible.

We’re kicking off October’s National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) with a webinar on Accessibility in the Workplace. We’ll introduce you to several ideas you can apply right away, at all stages of the employee lifecycle! And as anyone who has been to our webinars know, this isn’t just some boring slide deck. We’ll have all kinds of audience participation (with Mentimeter!) and free goodies too!

We’re also launching our online course academy, A11yLearn - and the microlearning library is currently FREE until September 30th! Sign up now for our first microlearning module, An Introduction to Making Work Accessible, for an introduction to accessibility at work. Explore the rest of the course library too - with our full online catalog launching October 1. Save a course to your wishlist today!