{"id":38332,"date":"2024-05-06T15:32:30","date_gmt":"2024-05-06T20:32:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tamus.edu\/marcomm\/?page_id=38332"},"modified":"2024-09-03T09:26:40","modified_gmt":"2024-09-03T14:26:40","slug":"accessibility-guidelines","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.tamus.edu\/marcomm\/socialmedia\/accessibility-guidelines\/","title":{"rendered":"Accessibility Guidelines\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Texas A&amp;M University System and its members must make every effort to create accessible electronic content, per the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dir.texas.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/2023-03\/Social%20Media%20Resource%20Guide.March2023.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Texas Department of Information Resources Social Media Resource Guide<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the guiding document for state of Texas entities using social media to communicate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">12 percent of Americans live with a disability \u2013 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\u2019t accessible, it cannot be consumed by all users.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>General Best Practices\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Images<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">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:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Provide context &#8211; think about how the image contributes to the message you\u2019re posting. Avoid copying the text from the post, as this is redundant and will cause people using screen readers to hear the text twice.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Be brief.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Avoid starting your alt-text with \u201cimage of\u2026\u201d or \u201cphoto of\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Give the experience of the image.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Include text from the image if you are sharing a graphic with text on it.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many social media platforms will automatically generate alt-text. However, it is often inaccurate, so always make sure to edit it to ensure accuracy.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Infographics and graphics should be treated as images for accessibility purposes. For graphics specifically:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Avoid flattened text at all costs \u2014 aka avoid flyers, \u201cnotes app\u201d style, and graphics with excessive text.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you do have flattened text on a graphic, it should be included in the image description.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The less text on a graphic for social media, the better.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Make sure the font is legible. The majority of your followers are using a small screen to view your content.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pay attention to color contrast \u2013 always use high contrast colors and utilize a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/webaim.org\/resources\/contrastchecker\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">color contrast checker<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> if you aren\u2019t 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.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Video<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For video content itself, make sure colors contrast, especially when text is involved, and that transitions are smooth.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use plain text.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Don\u2019t rely on color to convey meaning.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Limit flashing, blinking, flickering, or rapidly changing shots to no more than three per second.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Avoid white text on light backgrounds \u2014 this commonly happens on lower thirds.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Text<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use correct punctuation in posts, captions, and alt-text. This is critical for people using screen readers.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Utilize \u201cCamel Case\u201d 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.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Limit the number of hashtags you use on each post, as a screen reader will read all of them out to users.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">URLs should be as short as possible in posts, as a screen reader will read the entire URL out loud to users.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Limit the use of emojis in your social media posts, as screen readers read the emoji as their description.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For additional resources to accommodate users with disabilities for each major social media platform, see T<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tamus.edu\/marcomm\/socialmedia\/public\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">he Texas A&amp;M University System\u2019s Public Notification For Social Media<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Texas A&amp;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.\u00a0 12 percent of Americans live with a disability \u2013 this means a significant number&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"parent":12929,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"default","_kad_post_title":"default","_kad_post_layout":"default","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"default","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"default","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-38332","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"taxonomy_info":[],"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"tamus","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tamus.edu\/marcomm\/author\/webmaster\/"},"comment_info":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tamus.edu\/marcomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/38332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tamus.edu\/marcomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tamus.edu\/marcomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tamus.edu\/marcomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tamus.edu\/marcomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tamus.edu\/marcomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/38332\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tamus.edu\/marcomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tamus.edu\/marcomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}