Sep 06

Accessible Social Media

  • 6 September 2021

Questions Image Credit: AllThingsDThis is a question we get asked about a lot!

Accessibility looks at how people with disabilities experience the online space, whether it is a website, email, or social media.  Accessible websites present information through multiple channels for sound and sight, and they allow for additional means of site navigation and interactivity beyond the typical point-and-click interface: keyboard-based control and voice-based navigation. The combination of a multi-sensory approach and a multi-interactivity approach allows disabled users to access the same information as non-disabled users.

The following are suggestions from digital.gov for making social media more accessible:

  1. Make your contact information available on your social media account page. List a primary phone number and email address where a user can reach your agency with questions, or provide a link to your agency website that lists the appropriate contact information.
  2. Make your social media content available through more than one channel. Provide easy points of entry for more information. Some of the most common ways are to post threads on your website, provide options to sign up for daily email digests of social media posts, or to add a social media widget to your agency website.
  3. Provide links or contact information to official social media support and accessibility teams. Often, social media tools have their own accessibility tips and support help desks. Educate yourself about them and provide links to your constituents.
  4. Keep it simple. Good design and good content more often than not lead to accessible content. When possible, write in plain language, use camel case when appropriate (i.e., capitalize the first letters of compound words as in #SocialGov), and limit your use of hashtags, abbreviations, and acronyms. The use of the camel case is not only a common practice but a helpful one as it makes multi-word hashtags easier to read, including for those using a screen reader.
  5. Learn the accessibility requirements and periodically test your content for accessibility. Read the Section 508 Standards and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)2.0 and other key resources that discuss them. Then test your social media content with a screen reader or other type of assistive technology.