Best Practices for OSU Social Media Accessibility

Social media accessibility matters because it’s the right thing to do and allows everyone to interact or engage.

When it comes to accessibility, there are options that are good, better and best. Do your best to accomplish these best practices in your content.

Though not all social media features are accessible, every platform has avenues to make content accessible for everyone. To the extent it's possible, follow the guidelines and best practices below.

Copy

Post Captions

• Write captions in clear, straightforward language that is easy to understand for a broad audience.
• Avoid unnecessary jargon or complex terminology when possible.

Readable fonts and formats

• Follow the brand guidelines as it pertains to fonts.
• Avoid using all caps for better reader comprehension.

Emoji and special character usage

• Place emojis at the end of sentences rather than mid-text, and avoid repeating them
• Avoid special character fonts or platform bold formatting, as screen readers may skip or misread those elements entirely.

PascalCase/CamelCase hashtags

• Capitalize the first letter of each word in a hashtag so screen readers can interpret and say each word correctly, rather than reading the entire garbled hashtag. For example, #TheCodeCalls.
  
• See the full list of brand-approved hashtags

Descriptive Links

• Use link text that clearly describes the destination or action, so users understand where a link leads without needing surrounding context.
  • Bad example:
    • 🔗: URL
      
  • Good example:
    • Learn more: URL
  • Best example:
    • Learn more about America’s Greatest Homecoming traditions: URL

Accessible destinations

• Before linking to external pages, confirm that the destination meets accessibility standards if possible.

Media/Graphics

Graphics

• Avoid embedding text directly into images, as screen readers cannot interpret it and users relying on assistive technology will miss that content.
• When text must appear in a graphic, include it in the post copy as well so all users can access the message.
• Always add alt text to images to provide an equivalent experience for those who cannot see the visual.

Color contrast

• When adding text to graphics, use brand-appropriate color combinations that provide sufficient contrast to ensure legibility for users with low vision or color blindness.

Alt Text

• Alt text should give a clear, meaningful description of what the image depicts, including relevant context or humor that adds to the post's message.
• Focus on the most important elements first and keep descriptions concise(under 100 characters or about 25 words).
• Describe meaningful elements in order of importance.
• Avoid phrases like: “This picture…” or “image of…”
• Skip decorative text
  • A bad example, “This bold image of two courageous students walking to class during a scary thunder storm.”
  • An example without the decorative text, “Two students walking to class while it rains.”

Video Captions

• Use static or phrase-by-phrase closed captions that are synced with the audio so viewers can follow along accurately.
• Open/baked-in captions are not accessible for screen readers. If you’d still like to have baked-in captions, ensure that the in-platform closed captions are accurate.
• Include descriptions of meaningful sounds or music, and identify speakers so all viewers have full context for the content.