Accessibility Toolkit for Open Educational Resources (OER): Overview on Social Media Accessibility

Social media is used to interact and engage with others. Inaccessible social media content can prevent users from engaging with the social media world. If social media is not accessible it will shut users out of conversations or unable to access critical information. 

Inclusive design in social media refers to designing social media platforms, features, and content to ensure that all users, regardless of their background or abilities, can participate fully and engage on social media.

If your course is going to use social media as a tool, it is important to:

• make sure the content created is accessible to everyone.
• make sure the social media's platform is itself, accessible for your student creators.

• Formatting - Keep it simple
• Write image descriptions for photos and other static visuals
• Hashtags - make them #camelCase or #PascalCase
• Add captions to video content
• Create audio or written descriptions for video content
• Use emojis in moderation
• Put emojis at the end of your posts
• Use inclusive language and avoid ableist words
• Avoid using or sharing content with ASCII art
• Don't copy and paste alternative characters from external sites

Check out this "Accessible Social Media Checklist" created by Accessible Social.

Use it to help you check your social media content is accessible.

As the creators of the checklist note, "Please note that this checklist is not meant to be exhaustive or a fix-all for your content. It will remind you to include accessible best practices in your social media strategy and help you develop good content creation habits. Before you know it, they’ll become a natural part of your process and you’ll no longer need the checklist!" - Accessible Social

This Accessible Social video lesson, from November 2022, offers a convenient way to receive a comprehensive overview of accessible best practices for digital content. This video lesson was created by Alexa Heinrich, the Social Media Manager for St. Petersburg College (SPC) in Central Florida and the creator of the online account, Social Media Tea.

This webinar "Accessible Social Media 2.0" from March 2022, was also created by Alexa Heinrich, the Social Media Manager for St. Petersburg College (SPC) in Central Florida.

This webinar will cover how to create and publish content for social media in a manner that is accessible to individuals with a variety of disabilities (vision, auditory, motor, and cognitive). An overview of the basics of making content accessible on various social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube will be provided.

Learn tips beyond the basics such as tips on writing alt text, ensuring language is accessible, and testing your own content.