Adding Diversity to PowerPoint Presentations

Learn how to include diversity in your PowerPoint presentations. You’ll learn why diversity in presentations matters, and how to add inclusive imagery and language.

If you want to take diversity and inclusion seriously in your organization, it needs to be part of everything you do. This includes embedding diversity in your PowerPoint presentations.

To clarify, this isn’t limited to presentations focused on diversity and inclusion. It applies to every presentation you deliver, whether it’s a sales pitch to clients, an internal update, or any other type of presentation.

The unfortunate reality is that many business presentations inadvertently exclude significant segments of their intended audience due to their choice of imagery, language, and content. By making your presentations more inclusive, you can engage a much broader range of people.

In this article, we’ll explore the importance of diversity in presentations, how to choose diverse imagery, ensure accessibility, and use inclusive language. We’ll also provide some useful resources for enhancing diversity in PowerPoint presentations.

While our focus will be on PowerPoint, many of these techniques can also be applied in other presentation software, such as Keynote. If you’re eager to incorporate more equality and diversity into your presentations, continue reading.

Why Diversity Matters in Presentations

When you present, you’re sharing information and representing yourself and your business to your audience. Neglecting diversity and inclusion in your presentation design and delivery can lead to unintentional but damaging messages.

Scenario 1: Misrepresenting Your Employees

Imagine giving an end-of-year presentation to your employees, highlighting how the company has performed. You include comments from managers across the company, complete with their photos. However, every image displayed is of a white male, despite a diverse managerial team.

What message does this convey to your employees? They may infer that women or people of color cannot advance within your organization, or that their contributions will be overlooked despite achieving senior positions.

Your intention doesn’t matter in this case. Even without a deliberate attempt to exclude, audiences will interpret the imagery and words in your presentation as a reflection of your company’s values and inclusivity.

Scenario 2: Limiting Your Potential Customer Base

Consider a sales presentation where you showcase mockups of people using your product. If all the images feature young individuals, you risk alienating older demographics who might think the product isn’t meant for them.

This lesson extends beyond age; it’s crucial to represent a variety of backgrounds, genders, and abilities. Companies that have historically neglected diverse representation are now recognizing its significance, as diverse markets present substantial economic opportunities.

These examples underscore the importance of diversity in presentations. For further insights, check out the following tutorial:

• 10 Key Advantages of Promoting Diversity in Your Business
  
  Andrew Blackman
  24 Feb 2017

How to Add Diversity to Your Presentation’s Imagery

When incorporating diverse imagery into your presentations, focus on showcasing the full spectrum of your company’s employees or customers, rather than depicting specific groups as separate from the rest.

Consider how disabled individuals are often portrayed only in contexts related to disabilities, while generic representations of “customers” or “workers” frequently exclude them. For instance, an image showing collaboration among diverse workers should feature individuals of different abilities.

This representation acknowledges the presence of disabled individuals in the workforce without drawing attention to their disabilities.

As you evaluate the diversity of your imagery, aim for a mix of ages, genders, sexual orientations, and other identities. While it’s not necessary to include all categories in every presentation, strive for a balanced representation overall.

What If My Company Is Not Diverse?

If your company lacks diversity, the ultimate goal should be to improve that situation over time. Initiatives such as refining your hiring practices and fostering an inclusive culture are crucial.

• How to Ensure Diversity in Your Recruiting and Hiring Practices
  
  Andrew Blackman
  24 Mar 2017
• How to Build a Culture of Diversity and Inclusion in Your Workplace
  
  Andrew Blackman
  13 Apr 2017

In the short term, you can still reflect the diversity present in your customer base by using quotes and images from your diverse clientele or utilizing stock imagery.

How to Make Your Presentation Accessible to Everyone

Inclusivity also means ensuring that everyone can view your presentation with ease. Here are three key accessibility tips for PowerPoint presentations.

1. Visual Clarity

Design your slides with large, clear text using legible fonts such as Arial or Verdana. Avoid cluttering slides with excessive text; instead, keep key messages clear and concise. Consider using professional PowerPoint templates for enhanced readability.

These techniques not only assist those with visual impairments but also improve the overall experience for all viewers.

2. Design for Colour Blindness

Color blindness affects a significant portion of the population, particularly men. To accommodate those with color blindness, use high-contrast color combinations and avoid problematic pairings like red on green or blue on yellow.

You can use tools like the Coblis simulator to see how your slides appear to individuals with various types of color blindness.

3. Use PowerPoint’s Accessibility Features

PowerPoint offers several built-in accessibility features to support users with screen readers. You can add alt text to images and shapes to describe them, specify the reading order of elements on a slide, and utilize the Accessibility Checker found under the Review tab.

For more information on making presentations accessible, check out this tutorial:

• How to Make an Accessible PowerPoint Presentation

Andrew Childress
03 Dec 2017

How to Use Inclusive Language

Now that you’ve created a diverse and accessible presentation, turn your attention to the content, which involves both the text on your slides and your spoken delivery.

The text portion is relatively straightforward; take the time to research inclusive language while designing your presentation. Numerous online guides, such as these inclusive language guidelines from OHSU can be quite helpful.

Be mindful of language that reinforces stereotypes or stigmas, and strive to eliminate gender-specific terms. For instance, instead of saying, “When the user clicks this button, he’ll receive a notification,” you could say, “When you click this button, you’ll receive a notification.” This simple change emphasizes inclusivity.

While it may require conscious effort to avoid non-inclusive terms during delivery, it’s essential to communicate effectively and accurately without alienating any audience members.

For additional insights on this topic, check out this article:

• Guys and Girls: Does Your Language Exclude People?
  
  Rachel McCollin
  24 Nov 2015

Resources for Diversity in PowerPoint Presentations

Here’s a roundup of useful resources to enhance diversity in PowerPoint presentations.

1. Stock Images

You can find diverse stock imagery on platforms like Envato Elements. A search for “diversity in the workplace” yields over 3,700 relevant images.

You can further refine your search to find specific types of images that fit your presentation layout.

2. Language Guides

Utilize the OHSU guide mentioned earlier to ensure your language is respectful and inclusive. For specific topics, consider resources like the UK government’s guidelines on writing about disability or the GLAAD Media Reference Guide for LGBTQ+ terminology.

3. PowerPoint Accessibility Resources

To make sure your presentations are accessible, refer to Microsoft’s support page on accessibility and the tutorial on accessible PowerPoint presentations. Look for professional PowerPoint templates to help ensure clarity and ease of reading.

Conclusion

In this article, you’ve learned about the significance of inclusivity in PowerPoint presentations. You now know how to utilize diverse imagery, create accessible content, and apply inclusive language. With these insights, you can begin implementing these practices in your next presentation.