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’s fans and followers as possible.
Over 40 million Americans—or 12.7 percent of the population—lived with a disability in 2017, according to the US Census.
Disabilities 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:
In order live up to the University of Rochester’s values of diversity, inclusion, and access, our digital content—including social media posts—should be accessible to all users.
Generally 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.
Videos posted to social media should include captions or audio descriptions. Facebook lets page account managers upload captions as an accompanying SRT file and enable closed captions on Facebook Live broadcasts (PDF). YouTube can automatically create captions for video uploads (just be sure to double check the auto-captioning to fix any errors).
Podcasts or other audio-based media, meanwhile, should have accompanying transcripts readily available.
Alternative 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.
When writing alt text for non-decorative visuals, remember to:
For 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.
Learn more about alternative text from WebAIM. Another good resource is “Alt-texts: The Ultimate Guide,” written by a web developer with vision impairment.
Here’s how you can turn on the alt text or image description function on these common social media channels:
You may be asking yourself why someone with a visual impairment would want to use a social network like Instagram, one that is highly visual. In his co-presentation at the 2018 HigherEdWeb Annual Conference, Justin Romack, an accessibility specialist who is visually impaired, explained that Instagram is where his friends and family regularly post. He (rightfully) wants to participate as much as possible in the same space where the people he cares about are spending their time.
As institutions on social media, it’s our responsibility to make these kinds of shared spaces welcoming ones for our own communities of fans and followers.
Appropriate spacing between words improves readability, but hashtags on social media don’t use spaces. So try to use “camel case” 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’s back). This makes it easier for people to read and understand the hashtag.
Compare #WomensHistoryMonth versus #womenshistorymonth, #FridayReads versus #fridayreads.
You can explicitly describe the content you’re linking to or featuring in your social media post (e.g., [PIC], [VIDEO], [AUDIO], [GIF]).
Doing so lets users, including those with screen readers or limited data on their mobile devices, know what to expect before clicking a link. “Predictability is a key component of accessibility,” says accessibility consultant Janet Sylvia.
University of Rochester tweet about plasma research containing a link and incorporating a GIF description that’s offset using periods, spaces, and bracketed copy.
Social 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.
Of 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.
Questions, suggestions, or ideas about accessibility on social media? Contact us. We’d love to hear from you and work together to make the University’s presence on social media more accessible.