Accessibility
30 June 2020

How to make content accessible on social media?

January 27th is Community Manager’s Day and June 30th is Social Media Day and from TOTHOMweb we want to take a look at the most used accessibility options.
Making content accessible on the networks will allow it to reach many more people, avoid discrimination and promote good SEO positioning.

General concepts

Before going into each network, let's discuss general concepts that will serve us all:

The hashtags

The number of hashtags should be limited and especially included at the end of the tweet so that they are not an inconvenience that makes it difficult for people with screen readers or people with intellectual disabilities to read.

To make it easier to read them, it is recommended that the first letter of each word is capitalized, this will make the screen readers recognize the different words and read them separately as we would normally instead of reading it aloud. 

Images

In relation to images, we need to distinguish three types, decorative, informative and non-informative, but they need description. Let's discuss them in more depth:

  • The decorations. These are images that lack meaning for our content. That is, if we remove them, we are not losing information. These images do not need a description. Example: Paragraph separator line.
  • Informative images. They are those images that have written content and are transmitting information. Example: poster of an event.Needless to say, whenever we can, we should avoid these images. If we can do them through code (programming), it would be best to apply the text on the background of the image.What will this allow us? It will allow us computers to recognize the text, we will be able to enlarge the letter, we will not lose resolution (people with low vision will be able to read it without problems and blind people will be able to read it through a screen reader) and also, if possible recognizing the text will also allow it to be translated into other languages ​​through translators (it allows people who do not know the language to translate the content).So if we can’t provide the information as we discussed before, how do we do it? We must provide in the alternative text, all the information contained in the image. We have to think that people reading screen readers are losing this information, so we have to offer them the equivalent of alternative text as an alternative.
  • Images that do not contain text, but are important for our content. They will need to bring a description to the alternate text. How to make these descriptions? There is nothing written, no rules to follow, but a trick would be to describe the image as if you were telling someone over the phone an image you have in your hands (and no, don't cheat, we're not talking video calling).Another issue of concern is the colors. Can I refer to colors in my descriptions? Well, you have to keep in mind that not everyone knows what colors are like, either because you’ve never seen them or because you may have an altered perception of them. But you should also know that there are people who have seen the colors and maybe can no longer, but they have the memory and maybe they are amused to know. If we talk about clothes, it is clear that you have to explain why they need to know if it combines.

BroJokes aside, here we leave you with a document that is a  decision map to provide appropriate alternative text which can help you know if a description is needed or not.

Let’s talk now about each social network.

The accessibility of content on Twitter

The use of images on any social network is an important part of the user experience. Twitter has taken this into account and for some time now has allowed members of its network to add descriptions (alternative texts), without having to configure anything, so that visually impaired people can interpret the content of images or other graphic elements.

How to add image descriptions to Twitter

  1. Upload the image to the Tweet.
  2. Click where it says "Add description", in the mobile version a button appears saying Alt.
  3. Type the alternate text, you have a limit of 1000 characters. Take advantage!
  4. Save the description.
  5. You can add a description to each image in a Tweet.
  6. Post the Tweet!

In this section of the Twitter website you can find all the steps to include images accessible from the various mobile applications.

The new audio tweets

In early June 2020 Twitter has started testing a new option that allows users to post voice messages, capturing up to 140 seconds of audio in a single tweet, if more butter, it will create a thread of up to 25 tweets.

This possibility is currently available to a limited number of users of Apple's iOS platform and is expected to expand to more users.

Twitter explains that users will be able to create voice tweets using the new “wavelength” icon on the message writing screen.

You can find more information about audio tweets in the FAQ section of the Twitter website:

How to tweet with your voice?

And deaf people? How can they access audio tweets?

A few days after launching the audio tweets option, Twitter has apologized for doing so without adapting it to hearing-impaired users and explained that it is remedying it.

According to the company, they have already introduced improvements for this group and will arrive in the next update of the Twitter application for iOS. He also stated that work is being done on the best way to add subtitled transcripts with the content of audio messages automatically, and to allow them to be included manually as well.

 

The accessibility of content on Facebook

The most used features by companies or entities on Facebook are the creation of events or the publication of informative images.

The process for making images accessible on Facebook is simple:

  1. Upload the image.
  2. Select edit.
  3. Look for the "alternate text" option.
  4. Fill in the description field.
  5. Press the Save button, located in the lower right margin.

If we want to change the alternative text that has the default photo we have to click on the image and on Options - Change alternative text.

The accessibility of content on Linkedin

Linkedin also offers the ability to add alternate text to images and makes it very usable and easy.

  1. Upload the image.
  2. A button appears above the image that says Add Alternate Text.
  3. Enter the description, you have a limit of 120 characters.
  4. Press the Done button.
  5. You can now post your post.

If the image has already been published previously, we must select the options it has in the three points that appear at the top right and more specifically the one that says "Edit publication".

A menu will appear above the image and we must choose the option to change the alternative text.

We save it and we will have already made the change.

The accessibility of content on Instagram

Instagram doesn't make the option to add alternate text to images too visible. You need to know where to find it.

  1. Upload the image, place it, apply the filters, etc.
  2. Search Advanced Settings for the "Write Alternate Text" option.
  3. Type the alternate text.
  4. Desa.
  5. Post your photo.

If the photo was already published, open the post, select the three dots at the top right and choose Edit.

The "Edit Alternate Text" option will appear above the photo. We click and fill in this field.

The accessibility of content on Youtube

Youtube is surely the network that can be more complex when it comes to creating accessible content as videos may need audio description for the visually impaired and subtitles for the hearing impaired.

Ideally, subtitles written and synchronized by specialized technicians who know the guidelines should be included in order to make them suitable for deaf people.

The same goes for audio description but this is even more complex to include as Youtube does not offer this functionality. In order to publish audio-described videos, we should insert the audio description in the original video and upload it with this information already inserted.

How does youtube make it easier to include subtitles in your videos?

Youtube allows content editors to automatically generate subtitles for the uploaded video.

The Web Accessibility Observatory has generated the "Guide for inserting subtitles on youtube" which explains in a simple and eminently practical way how to generate subtitles for videos. With this guide you can also learn how to edit them to correct any errors they may contain or include all the relevant sound and contextual information that is needed to make this video accessible.

Who is obliged to make the contents of their social networks accessible?

It should be noted that the content that the administration publishes on social networks must be accessible. Also those published by companies of essential services such as transport, banking, water, electricity, gas, telephony, insurance, etc.

Last year, most of the provisions of Royal Decree 1112/2018 came into force.

Section 2 of Article 3 “Objective scope of application” of this RD presents a list of mandatory contents, including pre-recorded multimedia content on a temporary basis, understood as “basic multimedia content”. temporary ”any media file of the following types: audio only, video only, audio and video only, or any of the above combined with interaction (Article 4“ Definitions ”).

All the obligations of the Royal Decree affect both the information itself and the multimedia content generated by the Public Administrations and which they disseminate through their websites and mobile applications, regardless of the technological platform they use for this purpose.

Therefore, it also affects content that may be uploading to platforms such as Youtube, Twitter or Facebook, etc.

How can you deepen your knowledge of social media accessibility options?

If you need more information or specific training on accessing social networks from TOTHOMweb, we can offer you sessions adapted to your needs so that the content published by your company, entity, etc. reach the maximum number of people.

 

Tired girl in front of the computer

maria.cortes

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