How to make social media accessible
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1) The document discusses best practices for creating accessible social media content, including providing text alternatives for images and audio/video, using clear language, and considering people with diverse abilities and needs. 2) Key recommendations include providing detailed image descriptions, transcripts and captions for videos, using inclusive hashtags and emojis sparingly, and writing simply with common words. 3) The presenter takes questions and provides resources on creating accessible content for different social media platforms like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.
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How to make social media accessible
- 1. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 How to do accessible social media Daniel McLaughlan, AbilityNet Annie Mannion, AbilityNet (host) Tuesday 20 October 2020, 1pm (BST)
- 2. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 • Live captions from MyClearText – turn them on using the CC option on the control panel • Additional captions available: www.streamtext.net/player?event=AbilityNet • Slides are available at www.slideshare.net/abilitynet • Slides, a transcript and recording www.abilitynet.org.uk/social-webinar • Please use the Q&A window to ask questions • Feedback form to ask any follow up questions post-webinar Welcome
- 3. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 “We support people of any age, living with any disability or impairment, to use technology to achieve their goals at home, at work and in education.” AbilityNet: A Digital World Accessible to All
- 4. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 • Daniel McLaughlan, Accessibility and Usability Consultant at AbilityNet • Q&A Today’s session
- 5. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 • @Mark Poll What social media content do you mainly produce? • Blog posts or articles • Microblogging or updates (tweets, status updates, photos) • Podcasts or videos • All of the above
- 6. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 How to do accessible social media Daniel McLaughlan, AbilityNet Accessibility and Usability Consultant
- 7. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 Social media empowers us to share multimedia rich content more easily than ever before: • The ability to reach a global audience • The potential to inform, educate, and entertain • Readily available digital platforms Social media is awesome..
- 8. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 Without considering the diversity of human experience and how people access our content we can unintentionally exclude. Today we're going to look at the building blocks of social media content and the potential barriers to access they can create. ..but with great power comes great responsibility
- 9. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 • @Mark Text
- 10. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 Consider Complexity We should avoid making assumptions about the literacy and domain knowledge of people using our products and services: • Favour simpler words with less syllables • Be direct and use active voice • Avoid jargon and abstract concepts • Aim for a lower secondary education reading level
- 11. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 Consider Language We often use terms which carry inherent bias and inappropriate meaning. Being mindful about the language we use can create a safer, respectful environment for everyone. • Be mindful of common phrases ('blacklist', 'blind drunk') • Use gender inclusive language where possible • Avoid phrases that suggest victimhood (e.g. 'suffers from') • Avoid reinforcing existing stigma (e.g. terms for mental illness) • Provide trigger warnings LGBTQ+ Pride flag redesign by Daniel Quasar 2018
- 12. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 Emojis and Symbol Fonts • Use emojis sparingly and considerately. • Be mindful that the visual meaning and literal translation may be different. • Symbol fonts may not be identified by assistive technology, such as screen readers.
- 13. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 Example
- 14. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 Hashtags Use hashtags considerately, bearing in mind that the text will be announced by assistive technologies such as screen readers: • Use 'camel case' (e.g. #BlackLivesMatter, #Tech4GoodAwards) • Generally short • Usually at the end of the post
- 15. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 • @Mark Images
- 16. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 Provide Image Descriptions Most images on social media are informative. Provide a text alternative for assistive technology, browsers and search engines • Easier on some platforms than others • Review automatically generated alt text • Keep it short and direct – key information only • Avoid redundant information
- 17. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 How to add image descriptions - Twitter 1. attach image 2. tap '+alt' 3. write description 4. tweet
- 18. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 How to add image descriptions - Instagram 1. upload image 2. Select 'advanced settings' 3. Select 'write alt text' 4. write description
- 19. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 Example
- 20. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 How to add image descriptions - Facebook 1. upload image 3. Enter / edit alt text2. select 'edit alt text' 4. publish
- 21. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 • Clear and concise (125 – 140 characters) • Be meaningful: context matters • Include relevant information (including function if appropriate) • Front load important information • Avoid redundant words (e.g. 'image of') • Consider providing the description in the post Best practice for image descriptions
- 22. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 In general, avoid images of text as they do not scale well. Otherwise, consider font legibility, colour contrast and text alternatives. • Sans serif fonts are easier to read • Ensure sufficient contrast for graphics and text • Provide a text alternative Infographics and Images of Text
- 23. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 • @Mark Audio and Video
- 24. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 Provide Transcripts Provide a text alternative for visuals and/or audio important for understanding. • No set format for transcripts • Not a feature on all social media platforms • Describe dialogue, important sounds and visual fx • Format text to support understanding
- 25. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 Transcripts on YouTube An Open Transcript option is available on videos that have captions. • Timestamps can be toggled on and off • Transcript is 'interactive' (ability to skip ahead) • Transcript can be copy and pasted elsewhere
- 26. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 Best practice for transcripts • Reproduce dialogue verbatim where possible • Group into logical sections, paragraphs and lists • Aid navigation using headings and links • Indicate who is speaking and (if relevant) how • Describe important background sounds and visual events
- 27. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 Captions Provide a text alternative for audio important for understanding. Beneficial for deaf/hoh audiences and non-native language speakers. May not be appropriate for sign language users. • Capture all essential audio • Some platforms provide automated captions • Guidelines exist – see DMCP or BBC Subtitling Guidelines
- 28. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 Subtitles vs Captions Subtitles • Convey the dialogue only. • Intended for audiences who can hear but not understand the audio language. Captions • Convey all the essential audio: dialogue, music, sound effects and audio cues. • Intended for audiences who cannot hear the audio.
- 29. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 How to add captions on Twitter Twitter's Media Studio, the Twitter API or Twitter Ads all allow you to add a subtitle file to videos you've uploaded. • Upload an .SRT file at https://studio.twitter.com/ • Otherwise, create a video with captions/subtitles 'burnt in' – See Easy Captions for Content Creators by Courtney Craven of CanIPlayThat?
- 30. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 How to add captions on Instagram Instagram has four services for sharing video: Stories, Reels, Live, IGTV. • IGTV now has automated captions • Add captions before upload (e.g. Kapwing, Zubtitle) • Record your video with live captions (e.g. Clipomatic or Apple Clips)
- 31. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 How to add captions on Facebook 3. edit video1. post video 4. Upload .SRT2. await notification
- 32. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 How to add captions on YouTube 1. choose method 3. add/edit subtitles2. edit transcript
- 33. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 What about YouTube live streams? • YouTube provides automated captions for live streams for channels with over 10,000 subscribers • Real time captioners using supported software can provide captions (e.g. See YouTube Live Captioning requirements) • Speech to text services exist to stream captions to different services (e.g. Web Captioner)
- 34. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 Best practice for captions • Clear, consistent and accurate • Allow enough time to be read • Avoid obscuring visual content • Usually no more than two lines per caption • Use sentence case (first word, proper nouns) • Indicate relevant sound effects / music and the source
- 35. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 Provide Audio Description Provide audio description to describe any visuals necessary for understanding. • Plan ahead so audio description is not necessary • Not always required for a 'talking head' video • YouTube now supports multiple audio tracks
- 36. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 • @Mark Summary
- 37. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 What you can do • Always provide a text alternative for images • Use legible fonts and avoid symbol fonts • Ensure sufficient contrast for text and illustrations • Use emojis sparingly • Write hashtags in 'CamelCase' • Provide captions and transcripts for audio and/or video
- 38. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 Useful Links • GDS – Writing about Disability • Self Defined dictionary • Stroke Association – Aphasia Accessible Information Guidelines • Twitter – How to add Image Descriptions • YouTube – Automatic Captioning • IGTV – Enable automatic captions
- 39. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 • @Mark Q&A Please use the Q&A window (not the chat window) You’ll be directed to a feedback form at the end of the broadcast Slides, transcripts and a recording of this webinar will be shared via follow up email
- 40. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 Accessibility training courses Training: 10% discount code for webinar attendees: SocialMedia10 Book now: www.abilitynet.org.uk/training Training courses coming up include: • Accessibility for developers: ARIA and the Accessibility Tree: Thursday, 22 October • Accessibility for developers: Developing custom controls: Thursday, 29 October • Embedding accessibility at every stage of your project: Thursday, 5 November
- 41. How to do accessible social media – October 2020 • @Mark Thank you • AbilityNet newsletter: www.abilitynet.org.uk/newsletter • YouTube: www.youtube.com/abilitynet • Podcast: www.abilitynet.org.uk/podcast • Accessibility services: www.abilitynet.org.uk/accessibility-services • Next webinars – Tuesday 10 November: Christopher Patnoe, Google www.abilitynet.org.uk/webinars
Editor's Notes
- Almost 4 Billion people use social media: just over half the population of the planet. Facebook alone has around 2-2.5 Billion active users. We're online more with most of us having 8/9 social media accounts. (https://datareportal.com/social-media-users) The variety of content that we can share means we can cater to a wide variety of interests and needs. We've seen powerful use of social media over the summer for activism and news reporting, for example. Our readily available mobile devices and apps means platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube are never far away.
- But the sheer volume of content we can share means we need to be mindful about the needs of the people we're sharing with. We cannot assume that everyone can access our content in the same way. Yes, this is true of disabled people (and more often than not their needs are overlooked) but we all have access needs. Our bodies and the context in which we use social media is continualy shifting: our designs need to take this into account. Today I'm going to talk about four key social media platforms – Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube – by looking at four key building blocks of social media: text, images, audio and video. While there is a heavy focus on platform specifics, the hope is that you will take away guiding principles applicable to all services.
- Text is the foundation of the internet. The technology, HTML or HyperText Markup Language, is built around the idea of sharing our words and connecting those today. Text is fundamentally accessible if used properly.
- The first access need for text is to consider complexity: Sentences with many words and words with many syllables can be difficult to read. Subject performs the action (Subject – Verb – Action). Look for sentences contained the word 'by' (A report published by the government vs the government published a report). Passive voice can be used when action is more important than the actor. Be consistent Front load information – topic at beginning of heading, sentence, paragraph or link Avoid buzzwords and jargon – 9 to 5, think outside the box, crunch Can be used with explanation (contactless) Avoid abstract concepts – raining cats and dogs, low hanging fruit, birds eye view Can cause problems for autistic people, those with dementia, language disabilities (e.g. Aphasia) and learning disabilities. Reading level: Aim for a reading age of 'lower secondary education' where possible to make content accessible to a wider audience: 11 – 13 year olds (Year 7 – 9 in England) http://www.hemingwayapp.com/ https://www.gov.uk/guidance/style-guide/a-to-z-of-gov-uk-style#words-to-avoid https://www.stroke.org.uk/sites/default/files/accessible_information_guidelines.pdf1_.pdf
- Consider how our language may exclude. Use gender neutral language where possible (instead of manpower, mankind) or omit the gendered word (he/she) Can use plural pronouns (they) but may not always be appropriate. If possible, ask (also see Fen Slattery's Pronouns 101 guide) Avoid reinforcing gender stereotypes (manly, fights like a girl) Provide trigger warnings (TW or CW) for content that may resurface past trauma
- Easier to read and pronounced appropriately by screen readers
- Identify the target or destination of the link (e.g. avoid 'click here' or 'read more') Wider context is not always available in short social media posts. Use clear URLs: e.g. https://abilitynet.org.uk/jobs/sales-support-administrator
- We cannot assume that everyone will perceive our images in the same way or that they will understanding them without additional information. Image descriptions are useful for screen reader users (could be low vision or blind) or someone using Text To Speech who has a cognitive disability Used in place of the image if it fails to load Allows images to be indexed by search engines avoid unnecessary text and clutter. Front-load important information. use appropriate descriptions (context matters) Homepage rather than house text such as ‘image of’, ‘picture of’, ‘photo of’ are unnecessary
- Twitter - attach an image and tap "alt" then write alt text Images and GIFs alt text extension Tweet Deck
- Instagram - upload your photo, click next, then "advanced settings" and then click "write alt text". Then add your description and then click done before sharing as normal. Multiple photos Use alt text and caption Embed Instagram post on website VoiceOver demo
- Facebook - add a photo upload then select "edit photo" (desktop) or tap three dots then "edit alt text" (iOS). Enter alt text (iOS) or change the automatic alt text (desktop) as required. After publishing you can select the three dots, Edit Photo and Change Alt Text, then edit the alt text or select Override generated alt text (desktop)
- Sans serif fonts are easier to read, particularly for people who are dyslexic. Good colour contrast helps with identification and legibility. This is particularly useful when there is glare and for people with Low vision Colour blindness Motor disabilities / tremors
- Podcasts are typically audio only which can be inaccessible to people who are deaf or hard of hearing. They can also present problems due to cognitive load and for people whose native language is different from the audio track. Providing a transcript not only allows people who cannot perceive the audio access to this content, it can be easier to understand for everyone. It also makes our content more searchable. Bear in mind that transcripts are not always ideal for someone who is deaf. English may be the second language of someone whose first language is sign language. Since a transcript is text, this can be repurposed by AT in different ways. Reproduce dialogue verbatim where possible Group into logical sections, paragraphs and lists Aid navigation using headings and links Indicate who is speaking and (if relevant) how Describe important background sounds and visual events Useful base to create captions and translations Good for SEO
- More Actions > Open Transcript
- Common styles for speakers are capitalised text followed by a colon Common styles for sounds / visual events are square brackets this will make them accessible for deaf/blind users via braille. parenthesis Whisper/mouthing
- Capture all essential audio – not just dialogue – dialogue, music, sound fx, audio cues Automatic captions always need to edited before they are published - Errors and omissions can still occur YouTube automatic captions are not sufficient but can be a starting point Not required if a media alternative to text unless provides more info Failures typically omitted content, lack of captions (if not provided by text in page) and not marking up media alternative to text clearly Success Criteria does not stipulate style but guidelines exist for captions – see DMCP and BBC Subtitling Guidelines Captions are not available to someone using a screen reader so transcripts or AD are options. Captions also benefit people in loud or quiet environments.
- Subtitles and captions are often used interchangeably but serve different purposes: Subtitles are commonly used for translation but can be used for transcription. Captions can be open or closed Closed captions can be turned on and off by the user Open captions are part of the video itself and cannot be turned off
- Twitter supports broadcast standard CEA captions that are embedded within a media file. Where available activating the Closed Caption option on your device will show these. However adding a subtitle file or burning in captions is easier and will be available regardless of device settings. Upload your video directly to Media Studio. After the upload is complete, tap Media Detail to view the expanded menu for the video. Tap the Subtitles tab. From the list of Media Studio-supported languages, select the language of the SRT file. Tap Upload. Select the SRT file from your device. Not that the subtitles will only display if your device's sound is turned off. They will disappear once expanded. However on Desktop there isa 'CC' button to keep them on even when expanded.
- For IGTV captions you need to enabled the Auto-generated captions option under Advanced Settings just before you post your video. People watching the video also need to have auto-generated captions enabled under Settings > Account > Captions. They then need to tap on the video to view them. It's possible to save a Live broadcast to Instagram TV but there isn't an option to enable automatic captions unfortunately. However, you can download the video to which you could add captions then upload to IGTV. IGTV videos must be a minimum of 60 seconds and can be a maximum of 10 minutes (60 minutes for verified accounts) Reels and individual Stories segments are 15 seconds long.
- Captions shown if sound is off, otherwise need to be enabled Preferred language choice determines caption language Save .srt file as en_GB Posts: Photo/Video > Post > Edit Video > Upload SRT Pages: Photo/Video > Subtitles and Captions [CC] > Auto Generated, Write or SubRip (.srt) > Publish
- WebCaptioner (experimental) PubNub (OBS)
- Try to avoid omitting words or at least preserve the meaning, original intention and key phrases. May need to be on screen for longer than dialogue (can be shown early and late) Consider placement in relation to faces, graphics, action etc. Can use placement to indicate speaker. Do not break in a name, after a modifier/conjunction etc. Do not start a new sentence on same line. Avoid all caps since unless conveying shouting Generally no more than 42 characters per line Common to use square brackets for music / sound effects. Can use italics for off screen sounds.
- Audio Description describes any visuals necessary for understanding: The best approach to audio description is to not need it. With appropriate planning, the dialogue can convey the same information. Video with no relevant visuals like a 'talking head' video does not require AD. Otherwise, a separate audio track can be recorded or a video with appropriate space in the timing for audio description. Describe elements important for understanding objectively without bias. https://www.mcvuk.com/business-news/accessing-valhalla-descriptive-video-works-on-producing-audio-transcribed-trailers-for-assassins-creed/