Digital Accessibility
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.
Immediate Actions for Every 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.
Captions are mandatory for WCAG 2.1 AA compliance (Criterion 1.2.2).
On mobile devices, platform UI elements (Like button, Comment box, Profile icon) overlay the bottom and right side of the video.
Rule: Keep important visual content and caption text in the center 4:5 aspect ratio. If text is hidden behind the "Comment" button, the content is inaccessible.
Alt text describes the image to people who cannot see it.
How to do it:
What to write: "Students conducting a chemistry experiment in the lab" is better than "Students." Do not include "Image of..."
Hashtags: Capitalize the first letter of each word (#TexasTech, not #texastech). 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.
Bad Example: All Lowercase
Can't wait for the game! #wreckemtech #collegefootball
Good Example: CamelCase
Can't wait for the game! #WreckEmTech #CollegeFootball
Bad Example: Mathematical Script
Join us for the 𝖙 𝖆 𝖎 𝖑 𝖌 𝖆 𝖙 𝖊 this Saturday!
Good Example: Descriptive Context
Image: A photo of the university mascot shaking hands with a graduate.
Alt Text: "The Masked Rider mascot shaking hands with a smiling graduate at the May 2024 commencement ceremony."While social platforms restrict code access, your content must still meet these criteria:
Application: All social media images must have Alt Text. If the platform does not allow Alt Text (rare), include a descriptive caption in the main post text.
Application: All videos (Reels, YouTube, Feed videos) with spoken audio must have captions. Auto-generated captions must be reviewed for accuracy.
Application: Text overlaying images or video (e.g., a quote on a graphic) must have a 4.5:1 contrast ratio against the background. Use drop shadows or background blocks behind text to ensure this.
Application: Do not post videos with strobe lights or rapid flashing (more than 3 times per second), as this can trigger seizures.
A student organization posts a graphic on Instagram about a mandatory meeting. To make the caption look "aesthetic," they use a third-party tool to turn the text into 𝒞𝓊𝓇𝓈𝒾𝓋ℯ ℱℴ𝓃𝓉.
A blind student uses VoiceOver to read the feed. Instead of hearing the meeting time, they hear a long string of "Mathematical Script Capital C, Mathematical Script small u..." The student misses the meeting because the information was technically encoded as math symbols, not text.
A prospective student is scrolling through Instagram while riding the bus without headphones. They see a university tour video.
The video has no captions. The student sees the guide talking but doesn't know what building is being shown or what majors are housed there. They scroll past in 2 seconds. If captions had been present, they would have read "This is the new Engineering Center" and watched the whole video.
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.
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