Inclusive Social Media
Tips for creating social media content that is accessible for people who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind or have low vision.
Did you know:
18% of people in Australia live with some form of disability (4.4 million people) [1]
Over 13 million Australians have one or more chronic (long-term) eye conditions [1]
Over 300,000 Australians are blind or have low vision [2]
1 in 6 Australians are affected by hearing loss, and there are approximately 30,000 Deaf Auslan users with total hearing loss? [2].
So what can you do to ensure that your social content is inclusive and accessible to people who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind or have low vision?
Here are a few tips…
1. Write in Plain English.
Avoid jargon, slang, or technical terms unless they are appropriate.
2. Create accessible hashtags by using CamelCase.
Capitalise the first letter of each word to make multi-word hashtags more legible and to prevent screen reader errors. eg #InclusiveSocialMedia
3. Provide accessible image captions.
Screen readers have limitations when conveying graphics. To ensure images are accessible and communicable, add image descriptions to your captions. Be brief but specific, and don’t forget to mention colour if it is important to understanding the image.
eg [id: Maria Carolina Gomes Santiago celebrates with the gold medal during the medal ceremony for the Women’s 100m Freestyle - S12 Final].
4. Manually add alternative text on web and social images.
‘Alt text’ ensures screen readers can read descriptions of images provided. Unfortunately, missing or ineffective alt text continues to remain the most problematic aspect of web accessibility. We must work together to change this - by rethinking our digital practices and mastering the use of accessibility tools.
5. Put hashtags and mentions at the end.
Punctuation marks are read aloud by many screen readers, so be aware that hashtags may disrupt the flow of your copy.
6. Provide descriptive call-to-actions (eg ‘Sign up’, ‘Try it for free!’)
Be specific. Generic phrases like ‘Click here’ will leave listeners wondering ‘what for?’.
7. Use high-contrast colour schemes to support people with low vision or colour blindness.
Add solid backgrounds behind text to make it easier to read. Install browser extension tools such as a Web Disability Simulator to test your designs by simulating colour blindness, low vision and other conditions such as Parkinson’s Disease and Dyslexia.
Consider your audience and get comfortable using Colour Contrast Analyser or Colour Determinator tools. Ideally, this is something that should be considered prior to the development of brand guidelines and logos, but if you can’t (or don’t want) to change your brand colours, think about how you can provide alternative design solutions to support accessibility and inclusion where you can.
8. Go easy on the emojis – if you need them at all!
Emoji and emoticons will be read and interpreted by your screen reader (and not all screen readers will process them in the same way!). If you really need to use an emoji, check how it will be heard by using your screen reader. The same advice applies to the use of special characters or decorative fonts.
9. Provide audio-described video content (web), subtitles or captions for social stories or videos.
There are a range of ways to do this, but one of the simplest ways is to use the ‘automatic captions’ accessibility option for IGTV and InstaStories. With reports that over 85% of social content is actually watched without sound, captions are a game changer!
This is by no means an exhaustive list of accessibility tips, but it is a good starting point.
With all this, it is important to remember, that our communication practices and protocols will send strong messages about what it is (or who it is!) that we value the most. The question we must ask ourselves is, ‘Is the way I am communicating, honouring the people and reflecting the values that I say are most important to me?’. If not, now is the time to make changes…
Finally, we need to be mindful that accessibility is not the only measure of inclusion. Diversity and representation matters too! Be conscious of the stories you tell, the faces you show and the voices that you champion. We won’t always get these things right (no one ever does!) but what matters most is our willingness to learn and our commitment to growth along the way.
[1] Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
[2] Australian Network on Disability – Disability Statistics