How to Increase Accessibility in Social Media Content

This post by Trinity Foreman for the National Council of Nonprofits provides tips on how to increase accessibility in social media content for those who work in nonprofits, but these tips are broadly applicable to social media use in many types of organizations.

Social media has the capability to democratize resources and connect a wide world of users to a nonprofit. Planning content to ensure accessibility expands the audience and inherently expresses your organization’s commitment to equity and inclusion.

More than 40 million Americans have a disability; meaning intentional decisions in social media can make a big difference in their ability to access the resources your nonprofit has to offer. Accessibility is not only about opening resources to those with disabilities, but also improves the quality of the experience for all users.

Infographic showing the number of Americans with specific types of disabilities separated by the age range and sex of the individuals. The key examples related to the article is over 7 million Americans with vision difficulty.

Four Easy Steps to Improve Social Media Accessibility

  1. Add captions to all video content

    A poll run by Verizon Media and Publicis Media in 2019 found that sixty-nine percent of U.S. consumers view videos with their sound off in public places and eighty percent of consumers were more likely to watch an entire video when captions are available. As with many accessibility measures, adding captions improves the quality of the experience for all users.

    Auto-captioning is the most time-efficient method for adding captions. Social media platforms such as YouTube and Facebook, and Instagram (in some cases), can add automatic captions to a video. It is best to check that the generated captions are correct before posting, as errors are common. Additional options include using Kapwing or Adobe Premiere open-captioning. Closed-captioning includes the ability to toggle the captions on or off, but open-captioning (also known as subtitles) is permanently added to the video.

    Additionally, it is important to plan for the captioning when designing the video to ensure that, whether the captions are closed or open, all necessary information is still visible.

Read more at: https://www.councilofnonprofits.org/thought-leadership/how-increase-accessibility-social-media-content

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