Text Alignment (CL Office)

Word and PowerPoint both provide the functionality to align text along the left margin, to center text on the page (or, in Powerpoint, to center within a text box), to align text along the right margin, or to “justify” the text so that each line stretches from the left margin to the right. 

From an accessibility perspective, left alignment provides the easiest reading experience for everyone and is especially beneficial for people who are visually impaired and using screen magnification or who have dyslexia.

In contrast, "Justify" is the worst option, from an accessibility standpoint, because oftentimes, to stretch the text between margins there are large spaces inserted between words.  This can make tracking across the page particularly difficult for people who are using screen magnification or for readers with dyslexia. 

The screenshot below shows the text alignment options available in the Home tab on the ribbon in Word.  It's organized the same way in PowerPoint. Interestingly, Word and PowerPoint both display them from the best option (Align Left) to the worst option (Justify).