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I've been really invested in educating myself about accessibility lately, so here is a thread of some things I've learned that I think others should also know. This is especially important if you're a SMM. Also: resources. 
(thread inspired by @aturnz11)
(thread inspired by @aturnz11)
First of all, it is not up to folks with disabilities to educate you, so let's all be better for our neighbors and educate ourselves. Then, let's all push for better accessibility measures across the board so our society is more inclusive and so that it can work for everyone.
Lots of SMMs are eager to share marketing tips, social media "hacks", and whatever other advice people online will listen to. Let's turn that conversation into something that's actually productive. Incorporate these things into your copy and media content.
Here we go...
Here we go...
When using emojis, try to restrict your usage to just one emoji per tweet. Multiple emojis can be more difficult for screen readers to translate into speech. Also, using multiple emojis back-to-back is annoying for folks who use screen readers. https://blog.easterseals.com/emojis-and-accessibility-the-dos-and-donts-of-including-emojis-in-texts-and-emails/
Also, it's better to use standard emojis. For example, use "
" instead of "
".
" instead of "".
CAPTION YOUR VIDEOS.
Do it. Seriously. This is bare minimum stuff. Add interpreters, too.
If you needed incentive as a SMM/company, adding captions to videos dramatically increases the number of views and view times on videos. https://www.3playmedia.com/blog/7-ways-video-transcripts-captions-improve-seo/
Do it. Seriously. This is bare minimum stuff. Add interpreters, too.
If you needed incentive as a SMM/company, adding captions to videos dramatically increases the number of views and view times on videos. https://www.3playmedia.com/blog/7-ways-video-transcripts-captions-improve-seo/
If you have a podcast but aren't willing to manually transcribe it, pay someone else to transcribe it, or don't have anyone lined up to assist you with transcriptions, then you probably shouldn't have a podcast. Stop overlooking the importance of transcriptions.
Add alt-text to images. It's literally built into every tweet containing an image, so there's really no excuse. Find resources to educate yourself on how to best describe the images. Here's a good starting point:
https://webaim.org/techniques/alttext/
https://webaim.org/techniques/alttext/
Stop using copy and paste fonts. Screen readers do not announce those words/characters, so it's basically like they just aren't even there! Here is a funny but clear example of why using those fonts can be problematic: https://twitter.com/aardrian/status/1136646989565878272
When using hashtags with multiple words, capitalize each word.
#ScreenReadersUnderstandThis
#screenreadersdontunderstandthis
Camel case is your friend. https://averment.medium.com/why-does-writing-your-hashtags-in-camel-case-make-them-more-accessible-and-what-are-the-benefits-9e3b8e13e920
#ScreenReadersUnderstandThis
#screenreadersdontunderstandthis
Camel case is your friend. https://averment.medium.com/why-does-writing-your-hashtags-in-camel-case-make-them-more-accessible-and-what-are-the-benefits-9e3b8e13e920
If you're designing a logo, infographic, etc., be sure you have adequate color contrast in your imagery. Some resources:
http://colororacle.org
https://color.adobe.com/ https://michelf.ca/projects/sim-daltonism/
http://colororacle.org
https://color.adobe.com/ https://michelf.ca/projects/sim-daltonism/
If you're unsure whether or not your text-based content is accessible, you can use tools like these to find out where you can make corrections:
https://readable.com
https://www.webfx.com/tools/read-able/
https://readable.com
https://www.webfx.com/tools/read-able/
Inclusive design is SO important in social media content. Bypassing accessibility measures is alienating a huge part of the target audience. Take steps to make your content accessible for everyone. These shouldn't be "extra" steps - they should be the standard.
There are so many things I'm missing, so please feel free to jump in or make corrections where y'all see fit. These are just some things I've picked up over the past few weeks of diving into accessibility and how to be better overall in regard to inclusive design on social media.
I'm definitely guilty of not following some of these myself, but education is key so if this information helps myself & others to consciously make changes, we can be on our way to making social media more accessible & enjoyable for everyone on these platforms.
