{"id":7866,"date":"2022-11-29T12:33:03","date_gmt":"2022-11-29T17:33:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/communications\/?page_id=7866"},"modified":"2026-01-06T08:56:59","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T13:56:59","slug":"ensuring-accessibility","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/communications\/resources\/social-media-guide\/ensuring-accessibility\/","title":{"rendered":"Ensuring accessibility"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":546,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/one-column.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"class_list":["post-7866","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"lead_in":"","display_title":"","subtitle":"When posting to social media as a representative of the University, consider applying some or all of the following techniques in order to create posts that can be accessed by as many of your account\u2019s fans and followers as possible.","call_to_action":"","hero_image_placement":"no_image","hero_media":"images","hero_pattern_option":"","hero_video":"","hero_image_landing":"","hero_image_landing_two":"","hero_image_landing_three":"","content_modules_above":[{"acf_fc_layout":"text","anchor":"","css_class":"pt-0 pb-0 mb-0","title":"","content":"Over 40 million Americans\u2014or 12.7 percent of the population\u2014lived with a disability in 2017, according to the\u00a0US Census.\r\n\r\nDisabilities can include difficulties or impairments (temporary or permanent) with vision, hearing, cognition, or mobility. People with disabilities often use assistive technology to access digital content in their preferred format. Examples include:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Screen readers or magnifiers<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Closed captioning<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Voice command<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Spelling and grammar tools<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Mind or site maps<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nIn order live up to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/aboutus\/values\/\">University of Rochester\u2019s values<\/a>, our digital content\u2014including social media posts\u2014should be accessible to all users.\r\n<h3>Use plain language<\/h3>\r\nGenerally speaking, social media content that is easy to read and understand will be more accessible for everyone, including people with cognitive disabilities and non-native English speakers. Write using clear prose in short sentences and paragraphs. Avoid jargon and be sure to spell out acronyms on first reference, especially since these can be confusing when read separately without context or explanation.\r\n<h3>Include subtitles, closed captioning, or transcripts<\/h3>\r\nVideos posted to social media should include captions or audio descriptions. Facebook lets page account managers upload captions as an accompanying SRT file and\u00a0enable closed captions on Facebook Live broadcasts. YouTube can automatically create captions for video uploads (just be sure to double check the auto-captioning to fix any errors).\r\n\r\nPodcasts or other audio-based media, meanwhile, should have accompanying transcripts readily available.\r\n<h3>Write alt text, image descriptions, and captions<\/h3>\r\nAlternative text, known as alt text, provides a textual alternative to images, media, and other non-text content (animations, charts, infographics, etc.) on the web and social media.\r\n\r\nWhen writing alt text for non-decorative visuals, remember to:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Describe the image itself within the context of the social media post.\u00a0For example, if the Instagram caption doesn\u2019t describe the accompanying photo in a meaningful way\u2014perhaps you\u2019re using a quote along with a scenic campus photo\u2014then you\u2019ll want to manually add an image description (under \u201cAdvanced Settings\u201d). Alternatively, you can incorporate the alt text into the social media post itself, like so:<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Be succinct.\u00a0The commonly used JAWS screen reader, for example, will subdivide alt text that is more than 125 characters.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Avoid redundancy.\u00a0No need to include \u201cImage of\u2026\u201d in the description since the alt attribute implies that information.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>End the alt text with a period, which makes the screen reader pause after the last word.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Use dashes for acronyms,\u00a0otherwise the screen reader tries to read the acronym as a word. For example, you might write \u201cUSA\u201d as \u201cU-S-A\u201d in the alt text so the screen reader doesn\u2019t pronounce it as \u201cusa.\u201d<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Avoid \u201cburning\u201d text onto images.\u00a0Any important information that is burned or embedded into the image should be easily readable and conveyed in the alt text.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nFor longer descriptions (needed for, say, an infographic or chart), use the caption and then write alt text that complements the caption by enhancing, clarifying, or contextualizing rather than repeating information.\r\n\r\nLearn more about\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/webaim.org\/techniques\/alttext\/\">alternative text from WebAIM<\/a>. Another good resource is\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/axesslab.com\/alt-texts\/\">\u201cAlt-texts: The Ultimate Guide,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0written by a web developer with vision impairment.\r\n<h3>Turn on or edit alt text<\/h3>\r\nHere\u2019s how you can turn on the alt text or image description function on these common social media channels:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/help.twitter.com\/en\/using-twitter\/picture-descriptions\">Twitter<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 Profile &gt; Settings and privacy &gt; Accessibility &gt; Compose image descriptions<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/help.instagram.com\/503708446705527\">Instagram<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 Instagram adds automatic alt text using object recognition technology, but you can create your own. On the \u201cWrite a caption\u2026\u201d screen, click Advanced Settings (at the bottom) &gt; Write Alt Text (under Accessibility)<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/help\/214124458607871?helpref=related\">Facebook<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 Facebook also uses automatic alt text, but you can write your own when you want to provide a better description<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nAs institutions on social media, it\u2019s our responsibility to make these kinds of shared spaces welcoming ones for our own communities of fans and followers.\r\n<h3>Opt for camel case with hashtags<\/h3>\r\nAppropriate spacing between words improves readability, but hashtags on social media don\u2019t use spaces. So try to use \u201ccamel case\u201d for hashtags. Camel case means capitalizing the first letter of multiple words in a hashtag, which makes the hashtag appear to have humps (like a camel\u2019s back). This makes it easier for people to read and understand the hashtag.\r\n\r\nCompare #WomensHistoryMonth versus #womenshistorymonth, #FridayReads versus #fridayreads.\r\n<h3>Describe the content<\/h3>\r\nYou can explicitly describe the content you\u2019re linking to or featuring in your social media post (e.g., [PIC], [VIDEO], [AUDIO], [GIF]).\r\n\r\nDoing so lets users, including those with screen readers or limited data on their mobile devices, know what to expect before clicking a link.\r\n<h3>Create posts in multiple formats<\/h3>\r\nSocial media is constantly changing, with new and improved accessibility features added regularly. In 2018, Instagram introduced the ability to create customized alt text, a positive step in the direction of accessibility. But as of this writing, Instagram Stories, those posts and videos that vanish after 24 hours, still lack certain basic accessibility features.\r\n\r\nOf course, there are workarounds, such as editing and captioning apps, tools, tutorials, and hacks. We find it can also be useful to post your social media content in multiple formats and on multiple channels, ensuring that people can access the information in their preferred ways.\r\n<h3>Sources and resources<\/h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/WAI\/standards-guidelines\/wcag\/\">W3C\u2019s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/webaim.org\/\">WebAIM (Web Accessibility in Mind)<\/a><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","background_color":"#ffffff","width":"width-medium"}],"sidebar":"show__sidebar","sidebar_feed":"menu_select","menu":"266","page_links":null,"sub_menu":"","content_modules":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Social media accessibility - University Marketing and Communications<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"University of Rochester community members can learn how to make their social media content fully accessible to everyone.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/communications\/resources\/social-media-guide\/ensuring-accessibility\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Social media accessibility - 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