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How Accessible is Your Social Media?

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There is a likelihood someone in your program or department at UCSF has a disability (reported or unreported). Consider that one in four American adults has a disability, and closer to home at UCSF, 11% of faculty, 20% of learners, and 18% of staff report a disability according to the 2021 UCSF Climate Survey.

Yet, according to that same survey, 43% with disabilities report exclusionary behavior, which according to Assistant Director of Disability Access and Inclusion, Cecile Puretz, is just one of the reasons why digital content should be made more accessible – about 98% of websites are inaccessible– and it is also our legal responsibility.

Every quarter, the UCSF Office of Disability Access and Inclusion holds an hour-long “Access Lunch and Learn Series” to educate on strategies and tips on making digital content more accessible.

Following are just some of the highlights from the “Access Lunch and Learn Series: Social Media Accessibility” in September.

General Tips

  • Ensure photos are good quality and have bright lighting, and are not blurry

  • When posting flyers with text to social media, put the text in the comment section to ensure the text is accessible

  • Use camel case for hashtags, i.e., capitalize the first letter of each word e.g. #HealthEquity versus #healthequity

  • Use sans serif fonts –like Arial or Calibri– that are not too decorative as they can be skipped by a screen reader

  • Limit use of emojis as screen readers describe them which takes up space

  • Avoid emoticons as they are inaccessible

  • Use brief descriptive text instead of “Link here” when using hyperlinks – e.g. instead of “Click here for information,” which is not accessible, use “Read our blog to learn more about social media accessibility”

  • Use url shorteners like “tiny url” that allow for descriptions in the link

     

Captioning

  • Include descriptive text of the visual component when posting videos, this provides a narration of what is occurring on screen that one may or may not see (either self-caption them or use third-party vendors)

  • Transcripts of audio can also be provided

     

Alternative Text (Alt-Text)

Alt-Text provides a written description of an image shown and is typically visible only to people with screen readers. It is important to include this narrative content for the blind or visually-impaired so they have the same experience as a sighted person

  • Keep descriptions short but detailed

  • Use a 12-point font

  • Use mentions at the end of the post instead of the middle

  • Avoid all upper-case letters

  • Use good color contrast – use a contrast checker

  • Avoid Snapchat and TikTok as they are less accessible, instead upload to YouTube

  • When using infographics –convey as much information as possible in the alt-text

     

Resources

 

Register for the next Access Lunch and Learn, “How to Write Alt-Text” on Thursday, December 8.

Register

For more information, contact Cecile Puretz, Assistant Director Disability Access and Inclusion at [email protected]