08/08/2024 | News release | Archived content
Social media has the power to bring people together-but when you don't use social media accessibility best practices, it also has the power to exclude.
For the most part, scrolling through social is a no-brainer. We can log on while we watch TV, throughout the day, even during Zoom meetings (hey, we've all done it.)
But the ease of scrolling through social isn't a universal experience. For people who use accessibility aids to people who need additional contrast in visuals and text, partaking in social media can be a frustrating experience.
Thankfully, you have the power to make your social channels inclusive of more of your audience. And that puts your brand in the enviable position of improving social media engagement, while showing the whole of your audience that you see them.
Social media accessibility is the practice of designing and developing social media content and posts that provide a smooth, inclusive experience for everyone-including for you, the marketer.
Non-accessible content can cause all sorts of annoying, disruptive experiences-like videos with a lot of background noise that don't use captions. Creating more accessible social content is truly a win-win for everyone involved-from you, to your audience.
We talked to social strategist, accessibility advocate and creator of Accessible Social Alexa Heinrich for this article. When it comes to social media accessibility, she said: "Creating accessible social media means ensuring that everyone can access your content. No matter their physical or cognitive abilities."
Make accessibility part of your strategy, and apply it to your social content every day-not just when disability awareness dates are trending.
One in four Americans lives with a disability. And according to Pew Research, 62% of adults with a disability report owning a laptop, and 72% use a smartphone.
In other words: without inclusive social media, you risk alienating members of your audience, or missing them entirely.
"Logically, the more accessible you make your content, the more people that will be able to access and engage with it," Alexa tells us. "Inclusive best practices can have a direct impact on your communication efforts and affect how many people you reach with your digital content."
From screen readers to Sticky Keys and more, technology has made it easier for people with disabilities to be a part of the online conversation. But that same technology requires you, the marketer, to follow accessibility best practices to provide an inclusive experience.
In short, Alexa summed it up best, "Marketers should care about the experience that their followers have when they engage with their brand on social media."
Making your social posts more accessible on social media is relatively easy, once you know where to start.
Here are 9 social media accessibility best practices and tips you can start implementing today:
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.
Here's an example of what it looks like on X (formerly known as Twitter):
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.
Alexa put it best: "When writing alt text, ask yourself, 'What about my image is vital for someone to know?' Think about what you're trying to achieve with your social media content. Make sure that your alt text is descriptive enough to make your image accessible in a way that helps you meet those objectives and properly informs your followers."
Here are some best practices to follow:
And pro tip: Add video descriptions, too. Videos may not have an alt text option, so remember to add descriptions to your captions or threads to describe your video content. The below video from US Fish and Wildlife Services provides an in-depth and extremely informative description of their video.
Finally, just remember: don't overthink it. Alt text is subjective. As Alexa put it, "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:
As far as how you actually implement it, here are a few tips on how to add alt text on each platform:
X:
Facebook:
Facebook will automatically add alt text to images, but these auto-descriptions are far from perfect.
To add alt text to a new post:
Editing alt text that was automatically assigned to your photos is easiest on mobile. The auto alt text for this image was "may be an image of cat and indoor"-all the more reason to add your own. To edit your alt text:
Instagram:
When adding Instagram images on desktop, you'll see an Accessibility dropdown option. But adding alt text to images as you share them on mobile is more complicated:
To add alt text to an existing post:
LinkedIn:
Between the back and forth and limitations, like different options available in different platforms, adding alt text platform by platform can be challenging. Using Sprout Social streamlines your accessibility and publishing efforts. You can add alt text to your images across Facebook, X and LinkedIn, in one step.
While API limitations mean you can't add alt text to Instagram images in Sprout, you can add image descriptions to your captions as you schedule your posts-an accepted and widely-used alternative.
New innovations in AI can simplify your alt text workflows even further, with the goal to increase alt text adoption and social media accessibility across platforms. In a recent Arbotetum webinar on The Power of Accessible Social with Alexa Heinrich, Sprout revealed Generate by AI Assist-a new alt text generator built into Sprout's Publishing platform for certain plans. Alt text usage on social media images is notoriously low, and features like Sprout's Generate by AI Assist hope to change that.
With Generate by AI Assist, Sprout's integration with OpenAI creates alt text suggestions for you. When you add image posts to Sprout to publish on X, Facebook or LinkedIn, you can click the "generate" button to get detailed alt text suggestions in a matter of seconds. From there, you can use the auto-generated text as is or edit it directly in Sprout's Publishing tool.
Sprout helps cut down on steps so you can double down on accessibility. In fact, our accessibility features were a big factor in why Texas A&M University chose Sprout as their go-to social media management platform. And new AI alt text workflows have already proved useful for social marketers.
While playing around with typography on your website or social posts can be trendy, fancy fonts can be a nightmare for screen readers.
When it comes to social posts, a number of best practices will make all of your text more inclusive.
Let's start with a few best practices to follow:
Consider this: every emoji has a description assigned to it, like alt text to an image.
A screen reader would read the post below as, "I pencil love red heart writing writing hand: light skin tone content laptop." Not so cute.
You don't need to stop using emojis, just be mindful of where and how much you use them. Here are some tips:
Including closed captions should be an essential part of your video marketing strategy.
As Alexa put it, "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 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.
Captions are always a win when added to your videos. Here are a few common best practices:
Most social platforms have made this an easy step to include. But while auto captions are incredibly helpful, like any AI process, they're not perfect-which can lead to confusing, or even offensive caption mistakes.
Luckily, platforms that offer automatic captions also offer ways to edit them.
Using Sprout: You can upload SubRip Subtitle Files (SRT) to Facebook, YouTube and X videos while creating your posts in Compose.
YouTube: It's important to caveat-on YouTube, closed captions are called subtitles. There are a number of tools you can use to generate YouTube subtitles faster. But adjusting auto captions is an easy and quick place to start.
Facebook:
On desktop:
On mobile:
Instagram:
TikTok:
LinkedIn:
X:
Making your images and videos accessible goes beyond just using alt text and captions.
From providing warnings on content that would impact people with photosensitivity to making your content accessible to people with colorblindness, there are a number of ways you can provide a better experience with your visuals.
There are a number of ways you can make your visuals more accessible to all:
It can be all too easy to perpetuate bias, stigmas and marginalization in the words and phrases we may have gotten used to every day-even when we don't realize we're doing it. Not even beloved musical artists are immune.
Inclusive language is what it sounds like: using language that is inclusive and respectful, and free of bias, discrimination or exclusionary terms. Using it in your communications-from social posts to job descriptions-helps everyone feel like they're addressed, included and welcome to participate.
Inclusive language takes self-checking and education. But it's important to start now and to make it a part of your everyday process.
Here are a few ways to start using more inclusive language:
Accessibility and inclusion matters when it comes to HOW you post.
But it also applies to WHAT you post.
After all, according to a Sprout Social Pulse 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.
Prioritize diversity in social media and ensure that the whole of your audience feels included. Just remember to make these images accessible, of course.
These are just a few tips to get you started. To dive deeper, check out our article on diversity in social media.
If all of this seems overwhelming when you're just starting out, know that you're not alone. In a recent Sprout Social survey of 300 marketers, almost a third said that the time commitment to making posts accessible is their biggest challenge when it comes to accessibility.
But by now, you know how important it is to include more social media accessibility and expand your audience.
Integrating accessibility best practices into your content creation workflow makes accessibility part of the process-not an afterthought.
And, silver lining: in that same data above, almost a quarter of marketers report being able to prioritize accessible content smoothly.
Provide training for yourself and your team. Then, bake accessibility practices into your social scheduling and content planning routine. Setting your team up with a platform that makes adding alt text as you publish easy (like Sprout Social's publishing tools) can help you streamline this further.
Don't let the fear of perfection hold you back from making your posts more accessible and inclusive. The first step is the most important. The sooner you start putting accessibility and inclusive practices into your social media strategy, the better.
If you want to see how Sprout can streamline social media management for your entire team-accessibility features included-try us for free for 30 days. Sign up for a free trial and start your accessibility practices today.
Carly Hill
Carly Hill is a social media manager who creates organic social content and writes articles by day. By night, she enjoys creating comics, loyally serving her two cats and exploring Chicago breweries.