How to Make Social Media Posts Accessible for Visually Impaired

Intro

Social media has become an essential aspect of everyone’s everyday lives, be it a business owner, part of an organization, or an individual. However, certain individuals may not have the same level of access to your social media posts as others. People with disabilities require accessibility features to fully engage with and enjoy your social media content.

While not every social media manager or business owner may have extensive knowledge of accessibility, we have put together the most important tips, measures, and guidelines to help ensure that your content is accessible to visually impaired people and not only.

Digital Accessibility and Social Media

Digital accessibility plays a crucial role in making sure that online spaces, including social media platforms, are open and easy to use for people with all kinds of abilities.

Since a large part of the global population which is a minimum of 2.2 billion people experience either near or distant vision impairment, you need to ensure that your social media content is accessible. This implies that if you do not do so, you risk excluding billions of potential audience members.

Understanding how important it is for social media and digital platforms to be accessible to people with disabilities, such as visually impaired individuals, is crucial.

Including accessibility features right from the beginning when developing platforms is extremely crucial to ensure that everyone, regardless of their abilities, can easily use them and feel a sense of inclusion.

Nevertheless, it is never too late to enhance the accessibility of your current social media content.

How to Make Social Media Posts Accessible for the Visually Impaired

Before getting started to craft your social media content be sure to follow the latest WCAG guidelines for accessibility so you don't miss anything important. Also, an accessibility audit will help you identify all the barriers that prevent people from interacting with your platforms, including your website.

Include Alt Text, Image Descriptions

Simply put Alt text (also known as alternative text or tag text) is the text that is added to describe images. Including Alt text and image, descriptions is the most crucial step to ensure that your social media posts are accessible to individuals with visual impairments.

So, never skip this important step.

When you upload an image onto your feed, just remember to include a description of the image in the Alt Text field as well. If you don’t do so, the screen reader will present it as an “image” which will lead to a poor user experience.

While crafting your alt text make sure to:

• Craft brief yet descriptive text.
• Add meaningful context to the image
• Avoid adding phrases like “photo of” or “image of”.
• Apply dashes when presenting acronyms to prevent the screen reader from attempting to read the acronym as a single word.

Below, you will find detailed instructions on how to add alt texts and image descriptions on each of the most popular social media platforms.

Facebook

Facebook automatically provides Alt text on photos for individuals with visual impairment. However, it is recommended to replace it with your own more detailed descriptions.

To customize the alt text on Facebook:

• Choose and upload the image.
• Click on "Edit."
• Select "Alternative Text."
• Opt for "Custom Alt Text" to replace the automatic description.
• After composing your personalized text, click "Save." This ensures a more thoughtful and informative description for users relying on screen readers.

Instagram

Before getting started, note that you can add Alt text to your Instagram posts only through the Instagram app.

Like Facebook, Instagram also provides automatic Alt text. To add your own, just follow the simple steps below:

• Pick and upload your image.
• Click "Next" (for iPhone) or "->" (for Android).
• Navigate to the bottom of the screen and choose "Advanced Settings”.
• Click on "Write Alt Text,".
• After adding your text, click “Done”.

Additionally, Instagram allows you to add Alt text for each image of a Carousel post.

Twitter (X)

Twitter, renamed as X, doesn’t provide AI-generated alt texts for images.

To add an Alt text, follow the steps below:

• Upload the image.
• Opt for "Add description" beneath the image.
• Input a description of the image into the text box, allowing for up to 1000 characters.
• Click “Save”.

Linkedin

LinkedIn automatically generates Alt text for images. Whether you're posting images on your feed or adding them to articles, you can still manually add Alt text to your LinkedIn images.

For feed images:

• Pick and upload the image.
• Select "Alt text," on the desktop version or click on the 3 dots and choose "Alt text." on the mobile version
• After inserting the Alt text, click "Done."

For images inside articles:

• Pick and upload the image.
• Select “Alt text”.
• Add the text.
• Save.

Add Closed Captions and Subtitles to Videos

Videos without closed captions and subtitles can be a nightmare for visually impaired people. Hence, it is critical to add them to the videos on your social media platforms.

Let’s see how you can add and edit them on each of the most widely-used social media platforms.

YouTube

You have the option to automatically create and modify closed captions on YouTube.You can also add yours manually or by uploading a .srt file.

Follow the steps below to add a new YouTube video with subtitles and closed captions:

• Navigate to the YouTube Studio.
• Upload your video.
• Tap on “Add subtitles” on the video editing page.
• Modify the captions as needed, then save and publish.

Instagram

You can choose to include automatically generated closed captions in your Reels and Stories on Instagram. However, it's important to note that uploading .srt files is not supported.

Here's how to add closed captions to your Instagram videos:

• Upload the video.
• Tap on the “Stickers” at the top of the screen.
• Click the blue “Closed Captions” button.
• Share the video.

TikTok

You can easily include closed captions on TikTok by using the automatic caption generation feature. To enable this, simply go to Settings > Accessibility and make sure you have turned on the captions option. Alternatively, if you prefer to add captions manually, you can use any of TikTok editors available.

Linkedin

Like other platforms, LinkedIn also allows adding auto-generated closed captions or manually added ones. To enable the auto-captions:

• Upload the video.
• Switch on the next to Add auto-captions (English only) to automatically add captions to the video once they're generated.
• Review the captions.
• Click “Done”.

However, if you are uploading a video in a different language or just need to add your own text, you can add them manually as follows:

• At the top of your LinkedIn homepage, click the Video icon.
• In the ensuing pop-up, choose “Select video” to share.
• Pick the video and click “Edit”.
• Opt for “Select Caption” to link a .srt file and verify your choice.

Twitter (X)

By default, auto-captions can be enabled for all videos shared on Twitter (now X). However, you also have the choice to upload a .srt file.

To add manual captions:

• Upload the video to the desired post.
• Select the option "Upload caption file (.srt)" located below the video.
• Click on the pop-up, then choose the "Upload captions" button. From there, select the caption file saved on your computer.
• Click “Done”.

Make Your Text Accessible

The way we format text can impact its accessibility, and certain formatting choices may make it difficult for people with disabilities to read.

Here are a few helpful suggestions to keep in mind when creating social media posts.

• Apply a lot of paragraph breaks.
• Use simple language.
• Keep sentences short.
• Apply fonts that are simple and easily parsed.
• Use larger fonts.

Consider Color Contrast and Font Size

Make sure that your images have a strong contrast in colors, especially if they include text.

Avoid using combinations like green/red and blue/yellow, and aim for a color contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1. This should be done to accommodate people with color blindness or low vision. Furthermore, when displaying text on images, it is important to use an appropriate font size.

Use Camel Case for Hashtags

Camel Case is the convention of capitalizing the first letter of each word in compound words or phrases, excluding the initial word. For example, eBay, eCommerce, and so on.

It is a vital accessibility standard.

Note that when Camel Case is not utilized, screen readers face difficulty in identifying individual words within a hashtag, making the content inaccessible for users who rely on screen readers.

It is also recommended to place hashtags and mentions at the end of your post as another effective approach. This is because screen readers can find it disruptive when punctuation marks such as # and @ appear mid-post.

Use Emojies Wisely

Don’t forget to consider accessibility while adding emojis to your social media posts.

Screen readers pronounce emoji names in full each time they're used. Therefore, it's advisable to minimize emoji usage and refrain from employing repetitive emojis in your content.

Make Your URLs Screen Reader-Friendly

Yes, accessibility applies to URLs, too. There are 3 critical aspects to consider while adding URLs to your social media posts to make them more screen reader-friendly. For those passionate about enhancing their online content accessibility, using a shorten URL tool can significantly contribute to cleaner and more readable posts. Descriptive, short URLs are not just visually appealing but also screen-reader friendly, making digital spaces inclusive for all. When sharing links on your social platforms, remember that streamlined URLs drastically improve the user experience for individuals with visual impairments.

• The URLs should be descriptive.
• It is recommended to add relevant keywords in the URL to improve SEO and help users understand the linked content.
• Skip using URL shorteners. While they might be convenient, they often generate random characters that are not descriptive.
• It should be easy to understand where the link will take you.
• The links should be noticeable. For instance, it's recommended to use phrases like "Click for more" or "Read more"
• The links should direct to an accessible website.

Overall, accessible URLs offer a delightful and reassuring touch as they enable you to precisely describe the link's destination. Beyond enhancing accessibility, they contribute to a professional appearance and foster trust with your audience.

Final Thoughts

Making social media posts more accessible for visually impaired individuals goes beyond just being inclusive - it's about creating a more fair digital environment.

By applying easy yet powerful techniques like including descriptive alt text for images, ensuring readable text, and providing video captions, we can greatly improve the accessibility of our content.

Within this article, we have shared effective suggestions and strategies to assist you in crafting social media content that is accessible to visually impaired followers.

Begin making your content inclusive today and leave a positive impact on your audience.