The topic of accessibility and inclusiveness is a perpetually and exponentially hot topic in the information sector, increasingly so as technology evolves and our methodology of communicating with one another evolves alongside of it.

Accessibility is for absolutely everyone, and this is a topic that I am very, very personally invested in. I myself am currently working as one of the librarians at Vision Australia, the central body for the Blind, Low Vision, and Print Disability community on a national scale in Australia.
Looking through the provided resources, there is a litany of incredibly important topics that were broached, and explored, alongside my current and predetermined understanding of this topic.

Social media platforms, have an inherent habit of being highly visually oriented, with platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, and even Facebook relying heavily on the visual content to convey information. The average person gathers approximately 90% of all information their brain processes through visual stimuli, so, it is very logical and quickly understandable that if you were to take the sense of sight away, or impair it to any degree, the capacity to absorb and process information, particularly online, becomes remarkably more difficult.

Whilst there is work being done across the world, online and offline, in terms of bringing accessibility practices and inclusiveness to social media, there is still so much work to do.
Some great examples of accessibility best practice that I myself currently implement through my work at Vision Australia include;

– The use of Camel Text hashtagging on all social media. Whilst this may sound quite odd, Camel Text refers to capitalising words used in hashtags. Where you may put #livingmybestlibrarylife, a screen reader or other accessibility related tool would not read that correctly, causing the user a lot of confusion and difficulty. #LivingMyBestLibraryLife would be read correctly. The use of capitals for each word make the word appear as if it has ‘humps’, and therein lay the term, “Camel Text”.

– Alt Text is predominantly one of the most important practices that can be implemented with thought to inclusiveness and accessibility. Alt Text is the practice of succinctly and precisely explaining the contents of any digital image utilised in an online setting, on a post, on a website, etc., so any visually impaired consumer will still be able to understand the information being presented to them.

Accessibility and inclusiveness is one of the single most important facets of social media communications, for the sole purpose of, if social media is content designed to communicate to everybody, it needs to be for everybody.

References

Dargin, J. S., Fan, C., & Mostagavi, A. (2021). Vulnerable populations and social media use in disasters: Uncovering the digital divide in three major U.S. hurricanes. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 54, 102043. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102043

Harvard University. (n.d.) Social Media Accessiblity Guidelines. Harvard University Digital Accessibility Policy. https://www.harvard.edu/in-focus/the-accessible-world/social-media-accessibility-best-practices/

Nigam, Ishita. (2023). How to make your social media posts more accessible. Sprinklr.com. https://www.sprinklr.com/blog/social-media-accessibility/#:~:text=8%20best%20practices%20to%20make%20your%20social%20media,language%20…%208%208.%20Make%20your%20images%20inclusive

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