What is Social Media Accessibility?

Social media accessibility refers to the practice of ensuring that social media platforms and the content shared on them are accessible to individuals with disabilities. It involves making social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn, usable and navigable for individuals with various impairments. Social media accessibility aims to remove barriers that may prevent individuals with disabilities from fully participating in social media activities, such as accessing content, posting updates, engaging in discussions and connecting with others. 

By making your social media content accessible, you ensure that individuals with disabilities can engage with your brand and its messaging. 

Why Accessibility Matters for Social Media:

Social media has become a significant source of news, information and resources for users — especially those who are discerning their decision to move themselves or a loved one into senior living care. But the ease of scrolling through social media channels isn’t easy for some. For people who live with a disability where additional contrast or accessibility aids such as screen readers, magnifiers, or assistive listening devices are needed, social media can be a frustrating experience. 

The ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliance requires that businesses provide equal access to their goods, services and information by ensuring digital content is accessible to individuals with disabilities.  While the ADA compliance primarily focuses on web content, its principles can also be applied to social media platforms to enhance accessibility.

How to Make Social Media Posts Accessible:

When developing and publishing content on social media channels, consider this social media accessibility checklist to improve inclusivity:

1. Use alt text: When posting images, include alt text descriptions that provide a textual description of the visual content. This allows individuals who use screen readers or with visual impairments to understand the context of the image. It’s important to provide accurate and descriptive information that conveys the content and purpose of the image to individuals who cannot see it. This is not a place to hide unnecessary information or irrelevant SEO keywords.
2. Provide captions for videos: Add captions or subtitles to videos to make them accessible to individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing. This can be done manually by uploading an SRT file or by using automated captioning tools provided by the social media platform. Plus, captions even give you an SEO boost.
3. Use descriptive hashtags: Include descriptive hashtags that convey the content of your posts. This helps individuals who use screen readers or assistive technologies to navigate and understand the context of your content. It’s important to avoid all caps. Make hashtags easier to read by capitalizing the first letter of each word. Instead of #iloveseniorliving, use #ILoveSeniorLiving. 
4. Ensure proper color contrast: Use high color contrast between the text and background in your posts to make them easier to read for individuals with visual impairments. Ensuring the colors in your graphics have a 4.5:1 contrast will help make the text on your graphics visible to everyone.
5. Write clear and concise captions: Use clear and concise language in your captions to ensure individuals with cognitive disabilities can understand the content. Avoid using complex jargon, acronyms, run-on sentences, special characters, emojis and ambiguous language. (Note: Don’t stop using emojis! Just consider that each emoji has a description assigned to it. Just make a note of where and how often you use them — especially custom emojis that represent different skin tones.)
6. Provide accessible links within post copy: When sharing links, use descriptive anchor text that provides information about the destination page. Avoid using generic phrases like “click here.” Additionally, ensure that the linked content is accessible and adheres to web accessibility guidelines.

Your Partner for Social Media Accessibility

At Attane, we’re passionate about prioritizing accessibility to enhance the user experience on social media channels. Let us help you engage more leads and create a more inclusive and welcoming social media environment.