As with other forms of communication, social media posts must adhere to certain best practices to ensure that they are accessible to individuals with disabilities.
Workshop
General Best Practices
- Alternative text should be added to all images.
- Captions should be included for video content.
- Links that go to anything other than a web page should include the format in the body of the link. Ex. (Video) or (PDF).
- Linked content should also be accessible.
- Hashtags should be formatted with camel case (ex. #GoSU and #OttosArmy) and included at the end of the post.
- Graphical text should be avoided (exclusive of text in logos) unless complete alternative text is provided.
- GIFs and memes should either include alternative text descriptions or the meaning should be communicated in the visible body of the post (ex. GIF: Little girl showing a sinister smile as a house burns behind her).
Platform Specific Guides
- Facebook Accessibility site provides instructions for editing alternative text and adding text to video content.
- Facebook: Accessible Images and Posts for more detailed look at options like adding alternative text to shared posts and link previews.
- Twitter Accessibility Features page has a section titled What Tweet Authors Can Do, which provides information on alternative text, hashtags, emojis, and captions.
- Instagram Accessibility has links to adding alternative text to images and managing captions.
TikTok
- Commitment to Accessibility page has links to information on how to add a photosensitive/epilepsy toggle and warning and adding captions (they call it text-to-speech).