Fix a file, step by step

1. Open your file. Choose a .pptx file, or drag one onto the box on the start page. If your file ends in .ppt, open it in PowerPoint first and save it as .pptx.
2. Scroll through the slides. Every slide is on one long page, with its text, a title box and a box for each picture. The list beside the slides jumps to any slide and shows what each one is missing.
3. Type a title on every slide flagged "missing". See writing slide titles.
4. Describe each picture flagged "needs alt text", or check "decorative, no description needed" if it's only there for looks. See writing alt text. Suggest under each picture asks for an AI draft for you to read and accept. See AI drafts.
5. Check the document title under "File properties" at the bottom of the slide list. Ally copies it into the PDF and HTML versions students download, so it should name the lecture, not the file.
6. Download the fixed copy. "Download fixed copy" saves a zip file ending in "-rescue.zip". Open it to find the fixed deck, ending in "-rescue.pptx", and a report of what changed and what's still to do, ending in "-rescue.md". Your original file isn't changed.
7. Upload the fixed copy to Canvas and check its Ally score. Ally checks more than this page does, so it may still flag things like text contrast.

The line under the file name counts what's left, for example "2 slides still need a title". When it says every slide has a title and every picture has alt text, you're done with this page.

Press Enter in a slide title box to go to the next title or picture that still needs work. When you fix the last thing, a box appears after the last slide saying so, with its own "Download fixed copy" button. If you typed the last fix, focus stays where you are, and the next Tab takes you to that button.

Writing slide titles

Screen reader users move through a deck by its slide titles, and Ally turns them into headings in the HTML and PDF versions. A good title says what the slide is about.

• Use a few words that tell this slide apart from the others, like "Gestalt principle: proximity".
• Don't repeat the same title on every slide. If slides continue a topic, add "(continued)" or a part number.
• For a slide that's one artwork, the artist and title of the work make a good slide title.

Why some titles go above the slide

On slides that are mostly picture, Deck Rescue puts the title just above the slide's edge. It won't show when you present, but screen readers and Ally still find it. In sandbox tests, a title typed on top of a full-slide picture was flagged by Ally for low contrast, and the same title above the slide wasn't. The hint under each title box tells you which kind of slide you're on.

Writing alt text

Alt text is what a screen reader says in place of a picture. Write what a student would miss if they couldn't see it. The slide's own text is shown above the boxes so you can see what's already said.

• Alt text does the job the picture does for a sighted student, using only what they can see in it. Describe what matters for this slide, most important thing first. About 15 words is usually enough.
• Skip "image of" or "picture of". Screen readers already say it's a picture.
• If the picture contains words that matter, type those words.
• If the slide text already says everything the picture shows, mark the picture decorative, or keep the description very short. The screen reader reads the slide text anyway.
• For artwork, describe what's visible and leave out the title and artist, unless their names are written in the picture itself. A sighted viewer sees the work, not its label. Put the title and artist in the slide title or slide text instead.
• For people, describe what you can see: pose, gaze, gesture, clothing. Don't name them or state their gender unless the picture shows it in writing. "Adult" or "child" and "they" work.

Decorative pictures

Check "decorative, no description needed" for pictures that add nothing to the content, like a border, a background flourish or a logo repeated on every slide. Screen readers skip them.

The same picture on several slides

When a picture appears more than once, a checkbox under it offers to use your description on the other slides too. It's on by default. It only fills boxes you haven't typed in yourself.

"PowerPoint guessed this"

Older versions of PowerPoint wrote alt text automatically, ending in "Description automatically generated". Nobody checked these, so Deck Rescue flags them. Read each one against the picture and rewrite it. Once you remove the "Description automatically generated" line, it counts as checked.

Pictures used as a slide background

A background picture can't hold alt text. If it matters to the content, describe it in the slide title or the speaker notes. Deck Rescue shows the background picture above that slide's title box, labeled "Background picture on slide" and the slide number, so you can see which picture it means.

AI drafts

Suggest, under each picture's description box, asks Google's Gemini service for a draft description of that picture. "Suggest for all pictures that need it", above the slides, does the same for every picture still missing alt text that doesn't already have a draft waiting, one at a time in slide order. It shows its progress, like "Suggesting 4 of 23", and Cancel stops it. What gets sent is described at the top of this help.

Read every draft against its picture before you accept it. The AI can be confidently wrong, and only a person looking at the picture will catch it. Nothing it writes goes into your file until you accept it. The AI follows the advice under writing alt text, so it shouldn't name an artist, title or person unless the name is written in the picture. If a draft does, take the name out.

Accept or Discard

A draft appears in the picture's description box, labeled "AI draft, not accepted yet", with Accept and Discard buttons under it. You can edit it there before you accept. After Suggest on one picture, focus moves to the box so you can read the draft. Drafts from Suggest for all arrive without moving focus.

• Accept keeps what's in the box, your edits included. The page then scrolls to the next slide title or picture that still needs work, with its box ready to read.
• Discard puts back whatever was in the box before the draft arrived.
• Ctrl+Enter, or Cmd+Enter on a Mac, anywhere in the picture's card does the same as Accept. Escape in the description box does the same as Discard. The buttons always work too.
• Enter in a slide title box moves to the next title or picture that still needs work.
• When the AI thinks a picture is decorative, the card says "AI suggests this picture is decorative." and the decorative box is checked while the draft waits. Accept keeps it checked, and Discard unchecks it.

A draft nobody accepted isn't written to the file. If any are waiting when you download, Deck Rescue asks first, for example "3 AI drafts weren't accepted and won't be saved. Download anyway?", with Download and Go back buttons.

Notes on a picture

"This picture holds text students need."

The AI found the picture is mostly text, too much to fit in alt text, such as a screenshot of a form or a page of instructions. Put that information on the slide as real text or in a linked document. The note stays after you accept the draft. Short text, like a quote or a sign, goes into the description word for word instead, with no note.

"This is long for alt text."

The description is over 150 characters, typed or drafted. For a picture the AI called artwork, a chart or a diagram, the limit is 250, since those need more words. If the picture holds a lot of information, put it on the slide instead.

"AI can't read this picture format. Describe it yourself."

The picture is an SVG, EMF or WMF file, or one the browser can't open. Suggest is off for it, and you can still type a description.

"Try again"

Suggest for all got a busy answer for this picture and moved on. The picture's Suggest button says "Try again", and choosing it asks once more.

Pictures used on several slides

Deck Rescue asks about a picture file once, even when it's on several slides. The draft goes to the slide where you chose Suggest, or during Suggest for all, the first slide where that picture needs alt text. When you accept it, the checkbox under the picture fills in the other slides, the same as typing does. Until then, each other slide says where the draft is, for example "The AI draft for this picture is waiting on slide 2. Accept it there and it fills in here too." A decorative draft isn't copied, so mark the other slides decorative yourself.

The line under Suggest for all

When Suggest for all ends with drafts waiting, the line under it says how many, for example "Done. 3 AI drafts are waiting. Read each one, then Accept or Discard." It keeps count as you accept, discard or ask for more, and says "Every AI draft has been accepted or discarded." once none are left.

After the last fix

When nothing is left to fill in, a box appears after the last slide: "That was the last one. Every slide now has a title, and every picture has alt text or is marked decorative." It has its own "Download fixed copy" button. If your last fix was an Accept, the page goes to that button. If you typed it, focus stays where you are, and the next Tab takes you to the button.

The daily limit

Each person gets a set number of suggestions a day. The header shows how many you have left, after "Signed in as" and your email. Each Suggest uses one, Suggest for all uses one for each picture it asks about, and a suggestion that fails at the AI service still counts. The count starts over at midnight Eastern time. At the limit, the page says you've used today's suggestions, and you can still type descriptions yourself.

Drafting with an AI assistant

Suggest drafts picture descriptions only. Because Deck Rescue is an ordinary web page, an AI assistant in the browser, such as Gemini in Chrome, can also draft the slide titles and alt text for you to review. Unlike Suggest or PowerPoint's Generate alt text button, you give the assistant your own prompt that says what you want. For a deck of artwork, the prompt can follow best practices for describing art.

1. Open your file in Deck Rescue.
2. Open the assistant in the same browser window and paste your prompt.
3. Let it work down the page. When it's done, read every title and description against its picture before you download. The assistant can be confidently wrong, and only a person looking at the picture will catch it.

The assistant reads the whole page, including every picture, and sends it to the company that runs the assistant. That's more than Suggest sends, which is one picture with its slide's text and speaker notes, as described at the top of this help. Only use an assistant on a deck you're allowed to share with that service.

Example prompt for art slides

This web app is designed to fix PowerPoint slides for accessibility. Every slide is on this one page, one section after another. Work down the page from Slide 1 to the last slide. For each slide the list on the left marks "Needs title" or "Needs alt text", fill in the slide title box and the description box for each picture, then scroll down to the next slide. Keep going until no slide in the list says "Needs". Don't download the file.

These are art lecture slides. Write each picture description by these rules:

1. Open with the medium and form: "Oil painting of", "Bronze sculpture of", "Charcoal drawing of", "Collage of". Use "Photograph of" only when the artwork itself is a photograph, not for a photo of a painting or an installation. Never open with "Image of", "Picture of" or "Installation view of".
2. Put the most important thing in the picture first, then supporting detail: subject, action, setting.
3. Include color, light and composition when they carry meaning. In artwork they usually do.
4. Write one sentence of 15 to 30 words.
5. Type out any words visible inside the artwork exactly as they appear, in quotation marks.
6. Describe what's there, don't interpret it. Write "clenched jaw, gaze turned away", not "looks angry". The exception is when a little interpretation is needed to make sense of what's shown.
7. Don't repeat what the slide text already says.
8. Never name a title, artist, date, art movement or museum, even if you recognize the work. If you recognize it, use that knowledge only to describe more accurately, for example "gold leaf" instead of "yellow patterning". Don't write anything that assumes the reader already knows the work.
9. If a description is already in the box and it ends with "Description automatically generated", replace it. It can be considered unreliable.

For each slide title, write a few plain words that say what the slide is about, so someone using a screen reader can tell the slides apart. Don't number them, and don't use the artist's name or the artwork's title.

The prompt keeps artist names out of the titles too, because AI assistants misidentify artwork. Once you've checked the drafts, add the title and artist to the slide titles yourself where they belong.

What the slide list tells you

Needs title, Needs alt text

Something is still missing on this slide.

Filled in

This slide was missing something, and you've added it.

Nothing missing

This slide already had a title and alt text. That doesn't mean the slide is fully accessible, only that the two things this page checks are there.

"Only slides missing a title or alt text" hides the rest of the slides. It's off at first, because the slides around one that needs work often explain what its picture is for.

With it checked, a slide you finish stays in the list, marked "Filled in", while you're on it. It leaves the list and the page when you move on, which means any of these:

• choosing another slide in the list
• scrolling to another slide
• clicking or tabbing into another slide's boxes
• accepting a draft, or pressing Enter in a title box, both of which take you to the next thing that needs work
• going to either "Download fixed copy" button

A screen reader hears which slide is done and how many still need work, and the page doesn't jump. Typing never makes a slide leave, and an AI draft counts only once you accept it. When no slides are left, the list and a message beside "Download fixed copy" say so.

Uncheck it to see every slide again with its status. Checking it again lists what still needs work at that moment.

Saved work

What you type, and any AI drafts still waiting, are saved in this browser as you go. To pick up later, come back to Deck Rescue and open the same file again. You'll see "Picked up where you left off".

• It only works for the exact same file. If you edit the deck in PowerPoint, Deck Rescue starts fresh.
• It only works in the same browser on the same computer.
• Saved work is removed after 30 days.
• "Start over from the file" throws away your saved typing for that file.
• If other people use the same computer login, open "Saved work" at the bottom of the slide list and choose "Delete saved work for this file" when you're finished.

What this page doesn't check

Deck Rescue checks slide titles and alt text only. Use PowerPoint's Check Accessibility for the rest:

• charts, tables, SmartArt and shapes filled with a picture (Deck Rescue points these out)
• text contrast
• reading order

If something goes wrong

"Couldn't open that file"

Deck Rescue opens .pptx files up to 250 MB. If yours is larger, compress the pictures in PowerPoint (Picture Format, then Compress Pictures) and save again. If the file is damaged, open it in PowerPoint and save a new copy.

"No preview for this picture"

The picture is in a format the browser can't show, such as SVG, or it's too large to preview. You can still describe it. Open the deck in PowerPoint to see which picture it is.

"This browser isn't saving your work"

The browser is blocking storage, usually because of a privacy setting. Your typing still works, but download the fixed copy before you close the tab.

The download didn't appear

Check your browser's Downloads folder for a file ending in "-rescue.zip".