Ensure UNO Social Media is Accessible
Social Media accessibility ensures that your posts on Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), and LinkedIn reach everyone, including the 85% of users who watch video with sound off and those using assistive technology. The goal is to make content "born accessible" before you hit post.
Social media is often the first point of contact for prospective students and the community. If your content isn't accessible, you are excluding a significant demographic and risking compliance violations.
- The "Sound Off" User: 85% of mobile video is watched without sound. Without captions, your message is lost to everyone, not just the Deaf community.
- Screen Reader Users: A blind user relying on a screen reader will hear "Image" or "Unlabeled Graphic" if you don't provide Alt Text, effectively hiding your content.
- Algorithm Boost: Platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn prioritize content with high engagement. Accessible content (captions, clear text) keeps users on your post longer, signaling quality to the algorithm.
What You Need to Do: Best Practices
As a social media manager at UNO, it's essential to create accessible content that complies with Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and follows Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Level AA.
Images: Alt text describes the image to people who cannot see it. Always add descriptive Alt Text (Alternative Text) via the platform's accessibility settings.
How to do it:
- Facebook/LinkedIn/X: Look for "Edit Alt Text" or "+ALT" button when composing a post.
- Instagram: Go to "Advanced Settings" > "Write Alt Text" before sharing.
- What to write: "Students conducting a chemistry experiment in the lab" is better than "Students." Do not include "Image of..."
Video: Ensure all spoken audio has open captions (burned-in text) or accurate auto-captions.
- Open Captions (Burned-in): Best for Stories/Reels. The text is part of the video file. This ensures the text style, brand colors, and size are legible.
- Closed Captions (Platform Native): On Instagram, use the "CC" sticker or auto-caption feature. Or use the Edits app. Always edit the auto-captions to correct spelling of university names and terminology.
Hashtags: Hashtags: Capitalize the first letter of each word (#GoMavs, not #gomavs). This allows screen readers to distinguish the words. Without it, the synthesizer tries to read it as one nonsense word.
Emojis: Use them sparingly and place them at the end of sentences. Screen readers describe every emoji (e.g., "Face with tears of joy"). A string of 10 emojis is frustrating to listen to.
- Text: Avoid "fancy" Unicode fonts generated by third-party apps; they are unreadable to screen readers.
- Contrast: Ensure text overlays meet the appropriate contrast guidelines (dark font on light background, light font on dark background)
Safe Zone: On mobile devices, platform UI elements (Like button, Comment box, Profile icon) overlay the bottom and right side of the video.
Social Media Accessibility Guides & Toolkits
All university social media content must adhere to WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards. Use the following authoritative guides and tools to ensure your posts, images, and videos are accessible to all members of our community.
Platform-Specific Configuration Guides
- Facebook (Meta)
- Facebook Accessibility Help Center - The central hub for all accessibility features on Facebook.
- Visual Guide: Adding Alt Text on Facebook - Step-by-step screenshots for desktop and mobile workflows.
- Video Captions Guide - Instructions for uploading .SRT files.
- Instagram
- Editing Alt Text on Instagram - Official guide for adding alt text via "Advanced Settings."
- Managing Reels & Video Captions - How to enable auto-generated closed captions for Reels.
- Editing Existing Posts - How to retroactively add accessibility features to published content.
- LinkedIn
- Adding Alt Text to Images - Official documentation for desktop and mobile uploads.
- Video Closed Captions (SRT) - Guide for uploading caption files to native video.
- LinkedIn Accessibility Overview - Information on Immersive Reader and PDF accessibility.
- X
- How to Add Image Descriptions - Using the +ALT button and understanding the ALT badge.
- X Accessibility Features - Overview of captioning and screen reader support.
- Warning: Alt text cannot be edited after posting on X. Review before you tweet.
Third-Party Tools
- Contrast & Visuals
- Coolors Contrast Checker - Test text-on-image graphics for the required 4.5:1 ratio.
- WebAIM Contrast Checker - Industry standard validator for WCAG compliance.