Accessible APA 7 Beamer Presentation Template

Maintained by Lanie Molinar Carmelo

• 🌐 Website
• 🐘 Mastodon (Most active)
• 💼 LinkedIn
• 🧑‍💻 GitHub Profile

Built for blind and sighted students alike, this template provides an accessible LaTeX Beamer framework for creating APA 7-compliant academic presentations with comprehensive screen reader support. This repository provides a ready-to-use template for creating accessible academic presentations using LaTeX Beamer with APA 7th edition citation style. It emphasizes accessibility through semantic structure and presenter notes. This template uses biblatex with the biber backend (not BibTeX). It includes:

• presentation.tex: Main Beamer presentation with semantic structure and presenter notes
• presentation-notes.tex: Wrapper for building presentation with notes visible below slides
• presentation-handout.tex: Wrapper for building 4-slides-per-page handout format
• apa.csl: Citation Style Language file for APA 7th edition (used by Pandoc)
• Makefile: Build system for presentations (standard, notes, handout)
• references.bib: Bibliography for presentations
• .gitignore: Ignores LaTeX build artifacts and editor backups
• LICENSE: MIT License

Why This Exists

This template is for presentations only. For APA 7-compliant papers, use my APA 7 Student Paper Template.

Who This is For

This template is designed for students, researchers, and accessibility advocates who want to create APA-compliant presentations using LaTeX Beamer—especially those who:

• Use screen readers (NVDA, JAWS, Orca) or Braille displays
• Need accessible presenter notes for nonvisual practice
• Want semantic structure over visual formatting
• Work locally or in Overleaf

Accessibility Tools Used

This template was built with screen readers like NVDA and JAWS using Microsoft Visual Studio Code.

Note on Typography and Screen Readers

This template uses en dashes (–) for numeric ranges (e.g., pages 10–15, years 2020–2025) to comply with APA 7th edition style requirements. Important for screen reader users: Screen readers (NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver) announce en dashes as "en dash" and em dashes (—) as "em dash"—not as semantic words like "through" or meaningful pauses. En dashes are used here for APA compliance and professional typography, not for accessibility benefits.

Getting Started

1. Install LaTeX (TeX Live, MikTeX, etc.), Biber, and optionally Pandoc
2. Clone this repo and add your content to presentation.tex
3. Add your references to references.bib
4. Build your presentation using the Makefile (see Build Process)

Build Process

The provided Makefile automates compilation of presentations. Note: This template uses biblatex with the biber backend (not BibTeX).

Presentation Targets

Target	Description
presentation	Builds standard presentation slides (no notes visible).
presentation-notes	Builds presentation with notes visible below each slide (for rehearsal).
presentation-handout	Builds handout version (4 slides per page).
view-presentation	Opens the presentation PDF in your default viewer.
submissions-presentation	Copies presentation to submissions/ folder with timestamp.
html	Converts the presentation to HTML using Pandoc with APA citation styling.
docx	Converts the presentation to DOCX using Pandoc.
lint	Runs chktex LaTeX linter to check for common LaTeX issues.
clean	Removes LaTeX build artifacts and the output directory.
distclean	Removes all generated files, including outputs and submissions.

To use a target, run:

make <target>

Example:

make presentation
make html
make docx

All outputs are placed in the output/ directory. Archived PDFs are stored in submissions/.

Manual Build Steps

If you are not using the Makefile, compile your presentation with:

lualatex presentation.tex
biber presentation
lualatex presentation.tex
lualatex presentation.tex

Do not use bibtex—this template requires biber for bibliography processing.

Overleaf Compatibility

This template works with Overleaf:

• Upload all files (presentation.tex, references.bib, etc.) to your Overleaf project.
• In Overleaf, set the bibliography backend to biber (Menu → Settings → Compiler → Biber).
• Overleaf automatically runs the correct sequence (lualatex → biber → lualatex → lualatex).
• You can manage your bibliography in references.bib as usual.

Using Zotero for References

You can use Zotero to manage your references and export them to BibLaTeX format:

1. Select your references in Zotero.
2. Right-click and choose Export Items.
3. Select Better BibLaTeX (preferred) or BibLaTeX as the format and save as references.bib.
4. Replace or merge with the existing references.bib in this repository. Note: Install the Better BibTeX plugin for improved citation keys and automatic updates. Zotero Auto-Sync (Optional):

• Right-click your collection → Export Collection → Enable "Keep Updated"
• Zotero will automatically update references.bib when you add/modify entries

Customization

• Update the document metadata in presentation.tex (\title, \author, etc.).
• Use the biblatex options and APA formatting as needed.
• Modify the Makefile to suit your workflow or add new targets.

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues:

1. Check LaTeX Installation: Ensure you have a working LaTeX installation and all required packages.
2. Biber Issues: If citations or bibliography fail, verify that Biber is installed and properly configured.
3. Linting Errors: Run make lint to catch syntax issues and missing references.
4. Log Files: Review .log files for warnings or errors.
5. Overleaf: Ensure the bibliography tool is set to Biber in project settings.
6. Ask for Help: Reach out via LaTeX forums, Stack Exchange, or GitHub Issues.

Contributing

Contributions and feedback are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

License

MIT License.

Features

• ✅ Semantic accessibility: Structure and presenter notes for screen reader compatibility
• ✅ APA 7th Edition Formatting: Manual formatting following official guidelines
• ✅ Multiple Output Formats: PDF, HTML, and DOCX via Pandoc
• ✅ Automated Builds: Makefile with linting, viewing, and archiving
• ✅ Biber Backend: Modern bibliography processing (not BibTeX)
• ✅ Overleaf Compatible: Works seamlessly with Overleaf
• ✅ LuaLaTeX: Full Unicode and modern font support

File Structure

├── presentation.tex         # Main LaTeX presentation document
├── presentation-notes.tex   # Presentation with notes below slides
├── presentation-handout.tex # Handout version (4 slides per page)
├── references.bib           # Bibliography database
├── apa.csl                  # APA 7 citation style for Pandoc
├── Makefile                 # Build automation
├── add-refs-heading.lua     # Pandoc filter for references heading
├── .gitignore               # Git ignore patterns
├── README.md                # This file
├── CONTRIBUTING.md          # Contribution guidelines
├── CHANGELOG.md             # Version history and release notes
└── LICENSE                  # MIT License

Citation and Attribution

If you use this template for your academic work, consider acknowledging it:

Option 1: In your presentation's acknowledgments (informal):

This presentation was formatted using the APA 7 Beamer Presentation LaTeX Template (v1.4.0) by Lanie Molinar Carmelo, available at https://github.com/Lanie-Carmelo/latex-apa7-presentation-template

Option 2: In technical documentation or derivative works:

@misc{carmelo2025apa7presentation,
  author = {Carmelo, Lanie Molinar},
  title = {APA 7 Beamer Presentation LaTeX Template},
  year = {2025},
  publisher = {GitHub},
  journal = {GitHub repository},
  howpublished = {\url{https://github.com/Lanie-Carmelo/latex-apa7-presentation-template}},
  note = {Version 1.4.0}
}

Option 3: For derivative templates:

• Keep the version header in presentation.tex intact
• Document your changes in your own CHANGELOG
• Link back to this repository in your README
• Consider contributing improvements back via pull request

Why Attribution Matters

• Helps other students discover accessible LaTeX tools
• Supports ongoing development and maintenance
• Acknowledges accessibility advocacy in academic publishing
• Enables tracking of template usage and impact