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Research Posters

Creating an accessible research poster ensures that your work is available to everyone, including peers with visual impairments, color blindness, or those who use assistive technologies like screen readers.

Why Accessibility Matters

Accessibility is about access and readability. A research poster is a communication tool; if it isn’t accessible, you are effectively locking out a portion of your audience.

  • Access: Ensures people with low vision, color blindness, or cognitive disabilities can engage with your research.
  • Readability: Accessible design often results in a cleaner, more logical layout that is easier for everyone to read quickly.
  • Professionalism: Many professional conferences and grant-funding bodies (like the NSF) now require accessible digital formats as a standard.

Designing for Success

Because final dimensions and file requirements vary by venue and event, always cross-reference these general recommendations with the specific guidelines provided for your particular poster session.

Platform

Choosing the right software is the “foundation” of an accessible poster. Not all platforms are created equal when it comes to exporting a poster that can be accessible. 

Two good options include: 

  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Google Slides

Both Microsoft PowerPoint and Google Slides have built-in accessibility features that allow you to design and save your poster in an accessible format.

If you choose to use a different platform, make sure you can either Save As PDF or Export as PDF. This is crucial for getting an accessible file format. 

Template

Before you start, we recommend reviewing and selecting a pre-designed Poster Template. 

Templates are helpful because they are pre-formatted with a logical reading order, proper margins, and established heading hierarchies that screen readers can easily follow.

In addition, platforms like Microsoft PowerPoint and Google Slides have some ready built-templates to choose from. 

Adding Accessible Content

A template is only the starting point. You have to add accessible content. Here are three things to pay attention to as you design your poster.

1. Page Setup

The most important step before you begin designing your research poster is to ensure your page is set to the correct dimensions. 

If you start designing then change your page dimensions, your work can become distorted and unreadable. Avoid this by setting your page up at the very beginning. 

Your final dimensions may differ depending on where you are presenting. Verify the height and width required, then, on most programs you can select File > Page Setup to adjust the page size. 

2. Fonts & Typography

When selecting fonts and typography, pay attention to the following: 

  • Style: Use Sans-Serif fonts (e.g., Arial, Calibri, Helvetica). They are easier to read at a distance and for people with dyslexia.
  • Size: Keep body text at least 24–32pt. Titles should be 72pt or higher.
  • Alignment: Always Left-Align your text. Justified text creates uneven spacing (“rivers”) that can be distracting, difficult to track, and harder to read.

3. Color & Contrast

When adding color, be mindful of the following: 

  • Contrast: Use dark text on a light background (or vice versa). Avoid “vibrant” color combinations like red on green.
  • Meaning: Never use color as the only way to convey information (e.g., “the red line represents growth”). Use patterns, data labels, or shapes instead.
  • Check your contrast: A quick way to tell if your colors have good contrast is to view your poster in grayscale. If it’s difficult to read something, then you can make adjustments before saving. 

How to turn on grayscale on your computer [design note: add to details block so students can expand]

On Windows (10 or 11)

Windows has a built-in “Color Filter” that turns your entire screen black and white.

  • Press the Windows Key + U (or go to Settings > Accessibility).
  • Select Color filters from the left-hand menu.
  • Toggle “Color filters” to On.
  • Select Grayscale from the list.
  • Shortcut: Once enabled, you can usually toggle it on and off by pressing Windows Key + Ctrl + C.

On macOS

Mac has a “Grayscale” feature located in the Vision settings.

  • Click the Apple Menu and go to System Settings (or System Preferences).
  • Select Accessibility from the sidebar.
  • Click on Display.
  • Find Color Filters and toggle it On.
  • Set the “Filter type” to Grayscale.

4. High Quality Images & Text Descriptions

The quality of your images is just as important as the content n your images: 

  • Resolution: Use images that are 300 DPI to ensure they remain sharp when printed or zoomed in on a screen.
  • Data labels: Avoid using legends that require the reader to look back and forth between a color key and the data. Instead, place labels directly next to lines or bars in a chart. This is especially helpful for readers with color blindness.
  • Data Colors: Avoid using color-coding as the only way to explain your data. Try incorporating dashed lines or different data markers (e.g., circles versus squares) instead of relying only on color differences (like blue versus red lines).
  • Captions: Include a visible caption under every figure (e.g., “Figure 1: Comparison of Parental Control Usage by Income Level”). This helps everyone understand the context of the visual immediately.

Transcribing your Poster Content

A picture is worth a thousand words, and that’s exactly how you make images accessible for everyone. A poster is a complex graphic, and it requires a text transcript of the content. This helps readers who can’t see the image, or for users who understand content better through text. 

Add a second slide to your PowerPoint Presentation or Google Slides named Poster Description that includes all the relevant information from your poster. 

Review the Sample Text Outline for an example of how this might look.

Expand to review Sample Poster Description

Sample Poster Description

On a second slide, using a two column or comparison layout, add the following information. 

Update content in brackets as necessary for your particular poster: 

[Poster Title: Replace with Your Project Name]

Authors & Affiliations

  • Presenting Author: [Name]
  • Co-Authors: [Names]
  • Department/University: [Department Name, University Name]

1. Introduction / Abstract

[Paste the introductory text or abstract here. This sets the stage for why the research was conducted.]

2. Methodology

  • Participants/Sample: [Describe who or what was studied.]
  • Procedure: [Describe the steps taken in the study.]
  • Tools: [List any software, equipment, or surveys used.]

3. Key Findings & Data

[Student Note: Since screen readers cannot “read” a graph, use this section to describe your charts in plain text.]

  • Result 1: [Example: 75% of participants reported increased digital awareness.]
  • Image Description (Figure 1): [Example: A bar chart showing the correlation between X and Y. The X-axis represents age groups, and the Y-axis represents frequency.]
  • Image Description (Figure 2): [Example: A network graph showing the connections between platforms and specific risks.]

4. Discussion & Analysis

[Explain what the data means. Interpret the results described in the previous section.]

5. Conclusion & Future Directions

  • Summary: [The “big picture” takeaway.]
  • Next Steps: [What should be studied next?]

6. References & Acknowledgments

  • Funding: [Identify any grants or university support.]
  • Key References: [List the top 2-3 citations.]

Pro Tip for your Poster Description 

To create your text outline, do not manually draw text boxes or use the spacebar to align text. Instead:

  1. Go to New Slide (or Change Layout).
  2. Select the “Two Content” or “Comparison” layout.
  3. For the Title field add Poster Description
  4. Use the left column for your Introduction, Methodology, and Findings.
  5. Use the right column for your Discussion, Conclusion, and References.
  6. You may need to adjust text size to accommodate everything on the slide.

This ensures screen readers and other text to speech tools follow the columns vertically rather than reading horizontally across the page.

Saving your Poster

How you save your file is just as important as how you design it. 

  • Save as PDF, NOT an Image: Never export your poster as a JPG or PNG. Image files flatten all your text, making it unreadable by screen readers and impossible to search.
  • Don’t “Print to PDF”: Use the “Save As PDF” or “Export” function. “Printing” to PDF often strips away the accessibility “tags” that identify headings and reading order.
  • Check your Text: If you can highlight and select the text in your final PDF, then you have a document that a screen reader or other text to speech tool can read and interact with. Well done!

Submitting your Poster

To ensure your poster is accessible regardless of the platform you chose, your final submission must be a single PDF file containing:

  • Page 1: Your visual poster (designed with high-contrast colors and readable fonts).
  • Page 2: Your Poster Description (the “transcript” of your poster including data summaries for all charts).

This approach ensures you have an image and a text transcript that is accessible to the widest possible audience. 

30 second Poster Check

Here is a quick checklist of things to check before submitting your final poster. 

Layout & Navigation

  • [ ] Page Setup: I verified my slide dimensions (e.g., 48″ x 36″) before designing.
  • [ ] Two-Column Transcript: My “Poster Description” on Page 2 uses a native two-column layout tool, not manual text boxes.

Visuals & Data

  • [ ] The Grayscale Test: I toggled my screen to black and white, and all text and data points are still easy to distinguish.
  • [ ] Color Independence: I used patterns, shapes, or direct labels in my charts so that color isn’t the only way to understand the data.
  • [ ] Typography: My body text is at least 24pt, left-aligned, and I used a Sans-Serif font (like Arial or Calibri).
  • [ ] Image Quality: All images and charts are high resolution (300 DPI) and do not look blurry when zoomed in.

Export & Submission

  • [ ] Two-Page Format: My final file contains both the visual poster (Page 1) and the text transcript (Page 2).
  • [ ] File Format: I used “Save As PDF” or “Export to PDF.” (I did not use “Print to PDF” or save it as an image like a JPG).
  • [ ] Selectable Text: I can highlight and copy the text in my final PDF (proving it isn’t just one big “flat” image).
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