14.4: Conclusion: Presentation Aids
Lee Ann Dickerson
Presentation aids are powerful tools, but only when they serve the audience and the message. They should never distract, overwhelm, or substitute for your ideas. Instead, they help create clarity, reduce cognitive effort, sustain attention, and make ideas memorable. Thoughtful use of presentation aids reflects your awareness of audience diversity, accessibility needs, and the multimodal ways people make meaning.
Beyond the podium, this chapter reminds us that communication happens through many channels. The images, sounds, and materials we choose speak alongside our words, and they sometimes carry a message long after the speech ends. Effective presentation aids show respect for the audience, responsibility in design, and creativity in delivery.
In the next chapter, we shift from designing aids that support your message to the challenge of designing the message itself. Chapter 16: Informative Speaking explores how to build clarity, structure, and depth into your speeches so audiences don’t just see and hear your ideas but leave truly understanding them.
Key Takeaways
- Presentation aids are purposeful communication strategies that help audiences see, hear, or grasp ideas more clearly.
- Effective aids are multimodal and audience-centered, engaging multiple senses to reinforce memory, clarify complex ideas, and sustain attention.
- Accessibility is central: presentation aids must be perceivable, usable, and meaningful for diverse audiences across live, virtual, and distributed contexts.
- Planning aids with the PACT framework—Purpose, Audience, Context, and Tools—ensures they serve rhetorical goals rather than distract from them.
- Responsible use means designing with clarity, integrating aids smoothly in delivery, and giving credit to sources, including AI-assisted materials.
- Thoughtfully chosen and designed presentation aids extend communication beyond the podium, allowing messages to resonate across formats, moments, and audiences.
References
Kalantzis, M., & Cope, B. (2025). Multiliteracies since social media and artificial intelligence. Harvard Educational Review, 95(1), 135–151.
Mayer, R. E. (2009). Multimedia learning (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf. (2005). NAD-RID Code of Professional Conduct.
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). (2025). Making the Web Accessible. W3C.
