8 suggestions for improving the accessibility of social media posts

Social media may unite people, but when basic practices for social media accessibility aren't followed, it can also exclude.

Scrolling through social media is typically a no-brainer. We can use the internet whenever we want, including during Zoom sessions (hey, we've all done it).

But not everyone enjoys the simplicity of surfing through social media. Participating in social media can be frustrating for those who need more contrast in the images and text or who need accessibility aids.

Fortunately, you have the ability to increase the audience diversity on your social media platforms. Thus, your company is in an advantageous position to increase social media engagement while demonstrating the

What is accessibility in social media?

Designing and creating social media posts and content that offers a seamless, inclusive experience for everyone—including you, the marketer—is known as social media accessibility.

Videos with a lot of background noise that lack captions are only one example of the annoying, disruptive experiences that non-accessible content can bring about. Making social media material more approachable benefits everyone—including both you and your audience.

For this post, we spoke with Alexa Heinrich, a social strategist, supporter of accessibility, and founder of Accessible Social. Regarding social media accessibility, she stated: "Making social media accessible involves making sure that everyone can access your content. regardless of their mental or physical capabilities.

Make accessibility a component of your plan and consistently use it in your social media posts, not just when necessary.

Why social media accessibility matters

Every fourth American has a disability. And according to Pew Research, 72% of smartphone users and 62% of persons with disabilities, respectively, claim to own laptop computers.

In other words, if you don't use inclusive social media, you run the danger of alienating some of your audience or failing to reach them at all.

According to logic, more people will be able to access and interact with your information the more accessible you make it, Alexa informs us. "Inclusive best practices can directly affect your communication efforts and the audience reach of your digital content," says the author.

Technology has made it simpler for persons with impairments to participate in the online dialogue, from screen readers to Sticky Keys and other tools. However, the same technology calls for you.

"Marketers should be concerned with the interaction their fans have with their brand on social media."

The simplest way to put it simply is that Alexa said it best: "Marketers should care about the experience that their followers have when they engage with their brand on social media."

8 tips to make all of your social media postings more accessible

Making your social posts more accessible on social media is relatively easy, once you know where to start.

Here are 8 social media accessibility best practices and tips you can start implementing today:

1. Add alt text to images
2. Make your text accessible
3. Be mindful of emojis
4. Add closed captions and subtitles to videos
5. Make your visual content accessible
6. Use inclusive language
7. Prioritize inclusivity in your images
8. Make accessibility and inclusion part of your routine

1. Add alt text to images

Alternative text, or “alt text,” is a short yet informative description of an image that screen readers use to describe that image on social media.

Alt text is easy to add, yet underused. Other times, it’s used incorrectly altogether. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon to see some brands or accounts use alt text to hide unhelpful easter eggs, image credit and calls to action.

Guidelines for producing and including alt text

The best way to describe it is how Alexa stated it: "Ask yourself when writing alt text, 'What about my image is vital for someone to know?'" Consider your goals when creating material on social media. Make sure your alt text is sufficiently evocative to make your image accessible in a way that supports your goals and effectively informs your audience.

Here are some best practices to follow:

• Keep it succinct, yet informative. 125 characters is a common guideline, but don’t be afraid to write longer to paint a clearer picture for graphics or images alike.

• Skip writing “image of” or “picture of.” These are a given.

• Include keywords. Alt text plays into SEO—include keywords, as long as they’re relevant.

• Include context, too. The alt text for the Tweet below is “Snoozing fox in the brush at Lake Clark National Park & Preserve, Alaska,” which clearly explains why the image was paired with text about waking up early.

Pro tip: Include video descriptions as well. Remember to include descriptions to your captions or threads to reflect the substance of your videos since they might not have an alt text option. The US Fish and Wildlife Services' video summary is detailed and incredibly instructive in the clip below.

Just keep in mind: don't overthink it. Alt text is arbitrary. According to Alexa, "As the content author, you have the power to decide what details are important in not only your image, but your entire post as well."

As far as how you actually implement it, here are a few tips on how to add alt text on each platform:

Twitter:

1. Add a picture to your Tweet.
2. Under the image, click Add Description.
3. Enter up to 1,000 characters for your alt text description.
4. Hit save.
5. Your image will display a "ALT" badge to let people know it has alternative text.
6. If you have numerous photographs, select add description for any of them and switch between them using the arrows in the editing box.
7. You can also add alt text to GIFs while utilizing the media library on Twitter, according to Accessible Social.

Facebook: Although alt text for photos will be added automatically, these auto-descriptions are far from perfect.

To add alt text to a new post:

1. Add your photo to a post.
2. On a mobile device, tap the three dots on your photo and select edit.
3. Click on Alternative text.
4. Include your own custom alt text.

Mobile devices make it easy to edit the alt text that was automatically provided to your photographs. This image's auto alt text read "may be an image of cat and indoor"; so, you should add your own. Change your alt text here:

1. Go to your post.
2. Tap on your photo.
3. Tap the … in the top corner.
4. Select Edit Alt Text.

Instagram:

On the PC, you can add Instagram photographs by selecting them from the Accessibility dropdown menu. However, it's trickier to add alt text to photographs as you share them on a mobile device:

1. Upload your image once you’re done editing.
2. Hit Next.
3. Tap Advanced settings.
4. Tap Write alt text.

To add alt text to an existing post:

1. Tap the … above your post.
2. Tap edit.
3. Tap Accessibility.
4. Write your alt text.
5. Hit Done.

LinkedIn:

1. As you add an image to a post, tap Add description in the top right of your image.
2. Note: Adding or editing alt text is only available on desktop.

Platform by platform adding alt text might be difficult due to the back and forth and constraints, such as the inability to utilize alt text in Facebook's Business Suite. You may publish more frequently and make accessibility easier by using Sprout Social. You can quickly add alt text to all of your photographs on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

While Instagram picture alt text cannot be used in Sprout due to API restrictions, you can add image explanations to your captions as you schedule your posts—a recognized and common replacement.

The blogoasis platform assists in minimizing processes so you may increase accessibility. In fact, BlogOasis was chosen by Texas A&M University as their preferred social media management platform in large part due to our accessibility features.

2. Make your text accessible

While experimenting with typography on your website or in social media postings may be hip, screen readers may have a difficult time reading sophisticated fonts.

A few best practices for social media posts will make all of your material more inclusive.

How to write accessible text

Let’s start with a few best practices to follow:

• Format your hashtags the right way. From adding humor to celebrating hashtag holidays, hashtags are here to stay. Make hashtags easier to read for screen readers and users alike with “CamelCase,” where you capitalize the first letter of each word in a hashtag. So instead of #weloveteamsprout, write #WeLoveTeamSprout.

• Avoid all caps. All caps make words harder to identify by their shape, and screen readers may read them as acronyms—not full words. For example: text vs TEXT.

• Be mindful of font color. This is more relevant for landing pages or blog posts you link to. Ensure your font and hyperlink colors are accessible.

• Spell out acronyms first. This helps screen readers and people unfamiliar with acronyms.

• Write in plain language. Avoid jargon and overly technical language to make your posts more accessible to those new to your industry, non-native speakers or people who experience cognitive impairments.

• Avoid run-on sentences. Instead, opt for clear, short sentences.

• Present the most important information first. Helpful for accessibility, and to get your point across clearer, sooner.

• Include @ mentions at the end of your posts. This helps the flow of your post, especially for screen readers.

• Use special characters correctly, and in moderation. Screen readers know to not read all special characters aloud, like ampersands. But too many special characters in your text can result in a confusing experience for people using screen readers.

• Avoid “creative” typography. Playing around with cute fonts has become popular in social bios and posts. But these don’t work well with assistive technologies.

3. Be mindful of emojis

Consider this: every emoji has a description assigned to it, like alt text to an image.

A screen reader would read the Tweet below as, “I pencil love red heart writing writing hand: light skin tone content laptop.” Not so cute.

How to use emojis while keeping your content accessible

You don’t need to stop using emojis, just be mindful of where and how much you use them. Here are some tips:

• Be mindful of trends that rely on repetitive, overused emojis. The viral “red flag” trend, for example, is a nightmare for screen readers. If you must jump on a trend like this, limit your post to just a few emojis rather than using dozens. Find more tips in this article.

• Use emojis in moderation. This limits confusion in your posts. Put them at the end of a social post. This also helps you lead with your key information. And keep in mind: custom emojis that represent different skin tones are fantastic and inclusive, but be aware that they have longer descriptions. If you use multiple in a row, you’ll add complexity for folks using a screen reader.

• Avoid emojis in your profile name. This is disruptive to screen readers.

4. Add subtitles and closed captions to videos

Including closed captions should be an essential part of your video marketing strategy.

According to Alexa, "Captions make videos accessible for a variety of users—from those with hearing loss or cognitive disabilities to those learning a new language to people who simply don't want to wake up their sleeping partners or babies."

It also happens to be popular with Gen Z and millennial content consumers. Plus, captions even give you an SEO boost.

When you include captions in your videos, you always win. Following are a few typical best practices:

• Go beyond what’s being said. Subtitles write out what’s said, but closed captions add extra information for context like sounds in the background or music being played.

• Ensure captions aren’t covered by platform content. Especially important in formats like Reels and TikTok.

• Create high contrast captions. Make sure your captions are visible against your background, like white text against a black highlight, or vice versa.

How to add and modify closed captions is shown below.

Most social media networks have made it simple to incorporate this step. Auto captions are certainly very useful, but like any AI process, they're not flawless, which might result in unclear or even offensive caption errors.

Fortunately, platforms that provide automatic captions also have editing tools.

Using BlogOasis: Using Sprout, you can upload SubRip Subtitle Files (SRT) to Facebook, YouTube and Twitter videos while creating your posts in Compose.

• Navigate to “Compose.”
• Select Facebook, YouTube or Twitter from the Profile Picker.
• Click the camera icon, select upload video and add the video you want to use.
• Add a title.
• Select the language for the SRT files you plan to upload.
• Click Choose File to upload your file. You also have the option to click Upload another language file.
• Schedule your post.

YouTube: It's vital to note that closed captions are referred to as subtitles on the website. To create YouTube subtitles more quickly, you can utilize a variety of programs. However, starting with auto caption adjustments is simple and quick.

1. To add or edit auto captions on your videos, log into YouTube Studio.
2. Click the Subtitles tab on the left navigation.
3. Select the videos you want to add subtitles to, or edit subtitles of.
4. Set your language.
5. You’ll be taken to a page where you can edit the auto-subtitles of your video. Click Duplicate and Edit to correct any auto-caption errors.
6. Publish.
7. Heads up: When you upload a video and opt into auto captions, your captions may not populate right away. Keep checking back, then edit them when they are available.

Facebook:

On desktop:

1. Add your video to a post.
2. Click Edit.
3. Click Add Captions.
4. Click Upload Captions. Facebook uses Subrip (.SRT) files for captions

On mobile

1. Add your video to a post.
2. Tap Edit.
3. Tap CC at the top of the screen.
4. Facebook will transcribe the audio.
5. Select the look of your captions.
6. Edit them by tapping the Edit Captions button. Then, adjust words you need to change by tapping on them and typing in corrections.

Instagram:

1. Upload your video (all videos on Instagram upload as Reels now.)
2. Tap Next.
3. Tap the Stickers icon at the top of the screen.
4. Tap the Captions sticker.
5. Instagram will transcribe your audio.
6. Tap your captions as they appear on the screen to edit individual words.

TikTok:

1. Upload your video.
2. Tap Captions on the side navigation.
3. TikTok will transcribe your audio.
4. Review your captions, and tap the pencil icon to edit them.

LinkedIn:

1. Exciting news: LinkedIn now offers both auto captions and a way to review them. Start by logging into LinkedIn on desktop.
2. Add a video to a post.
3. Under Auto Captions, toggle on Add auto captions and review captions before viewers can see them to be extra safe.
4. You’ll see a banner below your post when your captions are review-ready.
5. Review your captions by clicking the … on your post.
6. Click CC Edit Captions.
7. You can also upload an .SRT file instead, which is prompted above your auto caption option.

Twitter:

• To add captions to your Twitter video content, you need to upload an .SRT subtitle file.
• Click on a video within your Media Studio Library.
• Select Subtitles.
• Choose your text language.
• Click Upload and select the .SRT file.
• To update the file further, click the pencil icon.

5. Make your visual content accessible

Using alt text and captions alone won't make your images and videos accessible.

There are several ways you may improve the visual experience, from warnings on content that might affect those with photosensitivity to making your content accessible to people with colorblindness.

How to make visual assets that can be accessed

You can increase everyone's access to your visuals in a number of ways, including:

• Avoid packing a graphic with text. Consider limiting the information on your graphics and linking to a blog post or landing page for a full statement, full event info, a full blog post, etc.

• Include a warning for people with photosensitivity. If you post a video with strobe effects or flashing lights, include a warning and create a pause before your content plays. TikTok includes a warning for content that may trigger unpleasant or dangerous effects for some people.

• Be mindful of viral trends that are not accessible. Trends that rely on unique post formatting, like the handshake trend below, may be fun to jump on. But they’re not friendly to assistive technologies. Before jumping on trends, consider how they would be read by a screen reader, and consider limiting using these trends, or holding off altogether.

• Don’t rely on different colors to convey meaning. This may exclude those who are colorblind, and may be impacted by cultural differences.

• Create visuals with high contrast. High contrast makes graphics easier to interpret. Ensuring the colors in your graphics have a 4.5:1 contrast will help make the text on your graphics visible to everyone.

6. Use inclusive language

Even when we aren't aware of it, it may be all too simple to reinforce prejudice, stigmas, and marginalization through the words and expressions we may have grown accustomed to using on a daily basis. Even well-known musicians are not immune.

Using language that is inclusive and respectful and devoid of prejudice, discrimination, and exclusionary phrases is what is meant by the term "inclusive language." Utilizing it in all of your communications, from job descriptions to social media posts, makes everyone feel addressed, included, and welcome to contribute.

Here's how to speak in an inclusive manner.

Language that is inclusive requires knowledge and self-evaluation. But it's crucial to get going right away and integrate it into your daily routine.

Using more inclusive language can be done in the following ways:

• Bust bias in your writing. For example, using the word “normal” as a comparison group can be ableist, or puts one group in “the norm.” Using gendered language is biased, too—a tool like the gender decoder can help.

• Use people-first language. For example, saying “a person with a disability” vs “a disabled person.”

• Keep an eye out for offensive language. Language is ever-evolving. Keep an eye out for now-outdated phrases, sayings or references, and cultural appropriation in your language.

• Keep learning. Language is constantly evolving, and we are constantly learning. Be curious about others, and educate yourself on preferred terms. Our inclusive writing guide is a great place to start.

• When in doubt, ask. Preferred terms even differ within groups and over time. Rather than assuming pronouns or preferred terms, when in doubt, respectfully ask.

7. Prioritize inclusivity in your images

Accessibility and inclusion matters when it comes to HOW you post.

But it also applies to WHAT you post.

After all, according to a recent Sprout Social survey, 66% of respondents said they were more likely to buy from brands showcasing people of diverse races, gender identities, ages and more. A Facebook analysis found that people with disabilities and the LGBTQIA+ community, for example, are underrepresented in digital ads.

Make diversity a top priority on social media, and make sure every member of your audience feels included. Just keep in mind to make these photographs easily accessible.

How to order more diverse marketing materials

These are merely a few pointers to get you going. Visit our article on diversity on social media for more information.

• Be mindful of your models. Do your models reflect the many ages, backgrounds and perspectives of your audience?

• Consider your collaborators. Inclusive social media content extends to creators, agencies and partners you work with and feature, as well. What voices are you amplifying, and are there voices you could amplify more?

• Listen. Listen to your audience if they take issues with your materials, and make changes

• Prioritize diversity all year-round. Only featuring a diversity of gender identities and couples during Pride Month, or women during Women’s History Month is inauthentic and risks tokenism. Feature people of all ages, backgrounds, body types and more all year around to truly represent and speak to your audience.

• Make your alt text descriptions inclusive. There are many resources out there about being inclusive with your alt text. Educate yourself on how to be inclusive with your descriptions, and know that this could come down to preference—for example, how someone identifies. When in doubt, ask—never assume. This resource has some great examples.

8. Include inclusivity and accessibility in your daily activities.

When you first begin, if everything seems overwhelming, know that you are not alone. Nearly a third of the 300 marketers who participated in a recent Sprout Social poll on accessibility claimed that finding the time to create accessible content is their top obstacle.

But by this point, you are aware of how crucial it is to increase your audience and make social media more accessible.

By including accessible best practices in your workflow while creating content, accessibility becomes an integral part of the operation rather than an afterthought.

The good news is that over a quarter of marketers say they can prioritize accessible content with ease, according to the data mentioned above.

Give yourself and your team training. Then incorporate accessibility best practices into your routine for planning content for social media. You can optimize this process even more by providing your team with a platform (like BlogOasis publishing tools) that makes inserting alt text as you publish simple.