Accessibility in social media is all about the content. Good accessibility practices help expand your reach to more followers than ever before.
Social media accessibility resources
- Instagram: Manage Your Account Accessibility
- Using Facebook: Accessibility
- X Help Center: Accessibility features of X
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Write in plain language
Writing social media posts in plain language makes your message clearer to everyone.
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Emojis
Emojis have built-in names that are used by assistive technology, such as screen readers. With this in mind:
- Confirm that the name of the emoji matches what you intended to communicate
- Limit how often you repeat the same emoji in a row
- Avoid trends that rely on repeated emojis or emojis arranged into a specific shape.
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Hashtags
Write hashtags using Title Case, meaning each new word starts with a capital letter. For example, #MatchDay.
When you write hashtags in Title Case, assistive technology can more accurately communicate each word to users.
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Include text alternatives for images
When you include images in a social media post, add text description of the images - commonly called alt text.
Many social media platforms offer tools to add image descriptions that are not visible on the screen but are read by assistive technology, such as screen readers. Some platforms can generate these descriptions automatically, but you should always review and edit the generated text to ensure it is accurate.
Alternatively, you can describe the image in the associated caption or post.
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Address images of text
When you share a graphic that includes meaningful text, repeat that text in the post or link to a fully text-based version of the same information.
Images of text cannot adapt to a person’s device settings, such as increased font size or high-contrast mode. By providing the text directly in the post, you give people more options for how they read and interact with the content.
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Measure color contrast
Use colors with high contrast against their background for meaningful elements such as text and graphics.
If you are not sure about the contrast, use a tool to measure it by comparing the foreground and background colors. Many design programs include built-in color contrast checkers, or you can use browser extensions or downloadable tools designed for measuring color contrast.
Color contrast minimums:
- Text: 4.5:1
- Icons and graphics: 3:1
Use tools, such as the WebAIM contrast checker, to evaluate color contrast ratios.
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Share accessible video and audio
When you create or share accessible multimedia, the video and audio work better across devices, audiences, and assistive devices.
User story: Images of text
Farah sees a social media post with details about an upcoming blood drive displayed in an infographic. Farah has a reading disability and uses a setting on her phone to automatically adjust text spacing. However, these settings do not work when the text is part of an image. She tries zooming in on the graphic to make it larger, but the text becomes blurry and difficult to read.
Remove the barrier: The event details from the graphic are repeated in the post text. The post text automatically adjusts to Farah’s settings, even when the graphic text does not, so she can access the same information more easily.