The Texas A&M University System and its members must make every effort to create accessible electronic content, per the Texas Department of Information Resources Social Media Resource Guide, the guiding document for state of Texas entities using social media to communicate. 

12 percent of Americans live with a disability – this means a significant number of your followers use tools like screen readers, closed captioning, and voice command to navigate social media. If your social media content isn’t accessible, it cannot be consumed by all users.

General Best Practices 

Images

All images should include an alt-text description, or a short written description of the image that helps those using a screen reader better understand. You can add alt-text natively through all major social media platforms or through all major third-party social media management softwares. When writing alt-text, remember to do the following:

• Provide context – think about how the image contributes to the message you’re posting. Avoid copying the text from the post, as this is redundant and will cause people using screen readers to hear the text twice.
• Be brief.
• Avoid starting your alt-text with “image of…” or “photo of…”
• Give the experience of the image.
• Include text from the image if you are sharing a graphic with text on it.
• Many social media platforms will automatically generate alt-text. However, it is often inaccurate, so always make sure to edit it to ensure accuracy.

Infographics and graphics should be treated as images for accessibility purposes. For graphics specifically:

• Avoid flattened text at all costs — aka avoid flyers, “notes app” style, and graphics with excessive text.
• If you do have flattened text on a graphic, it should be included in the image description.
• The less text on a graphic for social media, the better.
• Make sure the font is legible. The majority of your followers are using a small screen to view your content.
• Pay attention to color contrast – always use high contrast colors and utilize a color contrast checker if you aren’t sure the colors are contrasting enough. The colors on the graphic should be well contrasted so the image is viewable by people who are colorblind or who have a visual impairment.

Video

All video shared on social media platforms should have captions, either closed captions (these are captions that a user can turn on and off and are usually uploaded via an .srt file) or open captions (this is where text is edited into the video file itself and cannot be turned off). Always include closed captions/.srt files or open captions on all videos you post. All major social media platforms have the ability to upload an .srt file with your video. Instagram does not offer this for Reels; however it does have a native auto-caption tool for Stories.

For video content itself, make sure colors contrast, especially when text is involved, and that transitions are smooth.

• Use plain text.
• Don’t rely on color to convey meaning.
• Limit flashing, blinking, flickering, or rapidly changing shots to no more than three per second.
• Avoid white text on light backgrounds — this commonly happens on lower thirds.

Text

• Use correct punctuation in posts, captions, and alt-text. This is critical for people using screen readers.
• Utilize “Camel Case” style when writing hashtags. This means capitalizing the first letter of each word in a hashtag to make it easier to read for everyone, but especially those who use screen readers.
• Limit the number of hashtags you use on each post, as a screen reader will read all of them out to users.
• URLs should be as short as possible in posts, as a screen reader will read the entire URL out loud to users.
• Limit the use of emojis in your social media posts, as screen readers read the emoji as their description. 

For additional resources to accommodate users with disabilities for each major social media platform, see The Texas A&M University System’s Public Notification For Social Media.