Creating accessible social media posts is a crucial part of reaching your target audiences. It’s estimated that 8% of the U.S. population has a vision impairment (can’t be corrected with ordinary measures), while 15% of U.S adults report some trouble hearing. Accessible social media posts create an inclusive environment that allows for everyone to consume your content.
Drafting Alt Text
Alternative text, or “alt text,” is a short description that screen readers use to describe a photo or graphic to those that have trouble seeing it. When writing alt text to pair with an image, keep it concise and be sure to call out any of the key components of the image.
Refrain from writing “picture/photo of” or using directional language like, “read below.” However, you can consider including positional information such as “upward view.”
Accessible Text
When writing hashtags, always use CamelCase to aid with readability (#SpartansWill not #Spartanswill). It’s also important to utilize the fonts that are native to the social media platform that you’re posting on. “Cute” fonts don’t collaborate with assistive technologies.
Emojis
Screen readers read emojis by reading the assigned description that is paired with them. Be mindful of this description because it may differ from how you’d describe the emoji, changing the meaning of the content it’s paired with. Refrain from replacing words with emojis and use them sparingly.
Video Content
According to a Verizon Media report from 2019, 69% of users are watching video with the sound off. With that being said, video captions can be helpful for those that are in a noisy environment, have forgotten headphones or just prefer captions when a speaker talks quickly.
To make video content accessible, upload closed captions (SRT file) for any video with sound. If closed captioning isn’t available, use open captioning or the auto-captioning feature that is built into some platforms. Ensure that captions are visible, correct and that they won’t be covered by icons (like, comment, share etc.) once uploaded.
Additional Resources
Below are links to relevant resources shared at Social @ Michigan State events. See the meetings and workshops lists on the Campus Community page for additional information regarding these events.