1. Accessibility: Consider the needs of those with specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia, and individuals with visual and attentional difficulties. The following points should support you in developing clear, consistent and accessible presentation slides. 1

2. Layout: Keep it Simple Reduce the crowded appearance of slides as much as possible. Less is definitely more. Avoid distracting and unnecessary images. 2

3. Layout: Suggestion of 3 There are no hard rules about the number of key points on each slide. However, to keep accessibility high (and your audience’s attention!) it is unlikely that a slide will contain more than three key ideas. 3

4. Background: Preferably use pastel colours such as: Light tan Light yellow Light blue Etc. Such backgrounds can alleviate symptoms of visual stress, brought on by pattern glare and contrast sensitivity. 4

5. Accessibility of Text: If there are only 3 things you have time to try: Choose a simple font, Space out, and Magnify!” 5

6. Suggested Fonts: Be consistent in the use of fonts. Consider: Verdana Tahoma Arial Comic Sans Individuals with reading difficulty read these simple fonts with greater fluency and accuracy. Fonts should be clear and sans serifs as a minimum. 6

7. Text: Space out text in terms of line spacing, and on the page. Use line spacing of 1.15+ 7

8. Fonts and Font Sizes: Consider the following sizes and apply them consistently. Titles: 24+ Text: 20+ These sizes should appear at a reasonable size on presentations and slide handouts. 8

9. Emphasis of Text: For emphasis, use colour as oppose to bold, underlining and italics. Again, this can be easier to read for those with reading difficulties. 9

10. Readability: Routinely check the ‘readability’ of each slide, to ensure accessible language. This can be done by ‘cutting and pasting’ text into Microsoft Word (click the Microsoft Office button, “word options”, “proofing” and “show readability statistics”). Alternatively, cut and paste text into a free ‘SMOG’ readability calculator available at: http://shop.niace.org.uk/readability.html 10

11. Handouts: Insert page numbers on each slide. Make handouts easy to read when printed off, three slides to a page. 11

12. Handouts: Followability Consider the audience as you present, and help them to ‘follow along’. Ensure your presentation keeps to the order of your handouts as much as possible – it can be very frustrating following presentations that ‘chop and change’ from the given handouts. 12

13. Resources If you reference a resource in your presentation: Please provide a reference on the handout. Check the reference is still valid. 13

14. Branding: Please remove all corporate logos from slides and handouts. 14

15. And Finally: Thank you for supporting Patoss and your audience by following these few simple guidelines. We look forward to your presentation. 15