Accessible Posting on Social Media – How to Do It Right

1. 1. What does accessibility on the Internet mean?
2. I'll illustrate this with an example:
3. This is detected by a screen reader and read out when activated.
4. . However, the option to add an alternative text is currently only available in the Creator Studio.
5. 5. Diese Tools helfen Euch beim barrierefreien Posten
6. ⁠6. Fazit

A life without internet? Unimaginable today. Truth be told, we would probably have to make some compromises – as mobile availability not only becomes more and more taken for granted, but is also expected in many areas. Accordingly, online offers and apps are tailored exactly to our needs.

This is nothing new and a groundbreaking development that enables more and more participation and networking. However, when we enable such form of participation, we must also deal with the question: Can the content that we ourselves put online, and the content that swarms around in the online world, be consumed by all users? In this article, our guest author Nadine Triebel answers these and other questions about accessible posting on social media!

1. What does accessibility on the Internet mean?

Accessibility on the Internet: All information for everyone!Accessibility on the Internet means making online content unrestrictedly available to all users. That means: The creation of equal web offers for everyone who uses the internet and its offers. All information should therefore also be made usable for everyone.

Include people with impairmentsNo one may be disadvantaged because of their disability – this is already firmly anchored in our Basic Law (Article 3, Paragraph 3). People with disabilities or elderly people are an integral part of our society. Barriers are part of their lives and can lead to daily challenges in everyday life. Depending on the degree of impairment, for example, they can have reduced vision and/or hearing. Accessibility on the Internet is given when these restrictions, for example in seeing, hearing, or processing of information, do not affect the use of digital offers.  Hint: There are guidelines for the accessibility of online contents, which the W3C, (World Wide Web Consortium) has written down in the

Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)

. In addition, since 2002 it has been stipulated in § 3 of the German Disability Equality Act (BGG) that web offers must be designed to be accessible.

2. What does "accessible posting" mean?

Social Media: Realize potential, enable participation!

The social channels and their feeds are heavily visual. Images and especially videos make up an increasingly large proportion of content. In addition, the channels have generally become an essential source of news and exchange.At the beginning of the year, 4.62 billion users worldwide were counted on social media (Source: Statista, as of January 2022). Thus, more than half of the entire world population uses social media. Among them, of course, are also people who are impaired. Accessible posting means on the one hand becoming aware of the responsibility we have as creators towards this group of people and on the other hand, including these "other" basic conditions in our media planning. In other words, preparing our social media content in such a way that it does not represent a hurdle even for people with an impairment. Why post accessibly?

I'll illustrate this with an example:

Scenario A:

Imagine you are deaf and are confronted with content that is only available audibly: For example, you watch a video on YouTube that does not contain a subtitle.

Scenario B:

Imagine you have a visual impairment and are confronted with content on Instagram that is only visually available - but is not described. You can only perceive the images blurry.

Luckily, the big channels have already thought about that: Most channels provide features to make posts as accessible as possible.

Good to know:

People with disabilities often use so-called "screen readers",

which use speech output to give back text information over the phone/screen. These are relatively easy to set up on the smartphone.3. What should be generally considered when posting accessibly?

The Initiative for Accessible Posting is here to help and provides a wealth of material and advice on their channels on how you can post accessibly. For this, we have prepared a small excerpt as a checklist for you here.

Your checklist for posting accessibly: Add a picture description: Describe in short sentences what can be seen on the picture and use the existing features, e.g. Alternative Text.

This is detected by a screen reader and read out when activated.

Explain difficult words:

Make sure to explain technical terms or abbreviations.

• Write short sentences: Brevity is the soul of wit. And not only for people with impairments.Give your videos subtitles: Not only people with disabilities benefit from this. You also adapt the content to the increased mobile needs of social media users.
• Use simple language: Explain your content in such a way that a layman would understand it. Give it a meaningful structure and avoid overlong sentences.
• Start each word in a hashtag with a capital letter: Write every letter in capital letters if your hashtag consists of several words: #EmpoweredByInclusion. The screen reader recognizes that these are two different words and reads them out accordingly.
• 4. Accessible posting on social media – here's how it works on social media Facebook and Instagram: For page administrators
• The planning of posts is based on the same system for Facebook and Instagram, the reason being that Instagram has been part of Facebook, now Meta as the parent company, since 2012. Page admins can plan their posts in the Meta Business Suite
• or the Creator Studio

. However, the option to add an alternative text is currently only available in the Creator Studio.

This is how it works in the Creator Studio - Image (desktop view):

Create a new post in the upper left corner. Upload an image.Click on the pencil.Then navigate to Accessibility – Alternative Text.

Describe in short sentences what can be seen in the picture.

1. This is how it works in the Creator Studio – Video (desktop view):
2. Create a new post in the upper left corner and upload your video.
3. A mask for further editing of the subtitles automatically appears.
4. Facebook now also offers the function of automatic subtitles. Click on "Subtitles and translated subtitles".
5. Now you can decide whether you want subtitles to be added automatically, whether you want to review them beforehand, whether you want to upload a subtitle file (format srt.) or add subtitles yourself.

Important to know:

1. In the Creator Studio App, which can be downloaded for free in the Play Store/App Store, this option is currently not yet available.
2. Postings on private Facebook and Instagram accounts
3. Facebook – Image posts in feed (desktop usage):
4. Create a post.
5. Upload the image.

Click on "Edit".

Add under "Alternative Text" what can be seen in the picture.

Facebook – Image posts in feed (mobile usage)

The function

1. Alternative Text
2. , appears first
3. after
4. the image was uploaded.

Then click on the three dots in the top right corner.

1. The function "Edit Alternative Text" appears at the bottom. Facebook – Video posts in feed (mobile usage)Currently, there is no mobile function for creating subtitles for video posts in the app available. But: Videos uploaded via mobile can be subtitled after uploading in the desktop view. This is how it works in the desktop view: After mobile upload, click on the three dots in the upper right corner
2. Click on "Edit post".
3. Hold the mouse over the video, then click "Edit".

Add subtitles – Upload image texts (srt. file).

Instagram – Image posts in feed (mobile usage)

You can also do content planning on Instagram in the

1. Creator Studio
2. if you want to schedule posts in advance. Otherwise, the app is preferably used mobile - here you can use the function
3. Alternative Text
4. already before posting - but it is also possible to add the alternative text afterwards.

Here's how it works:

Upload the image in the feed.Click through to the mask where you write the image caption. Click on "Advanced Settings".Click on Accessibility – Enter Alternative Text.

Instagram – Video posts in feed (mobile usage)

1. Instagram just introduced the automatic subtitle feature for videos in the feed.
2. Here's how it works:
3. Upload your video in the feed as usual.
4. Navigate to the mask where you also write the accompanying text.Click on "Advanced Settings" at the bottom.Check if the "Show subtitles" button is active.

This should be automatically set.

Hint:

The automatic subtitle function for videos in the story will follow soon. Currently, you can add subtitles there manually by adding text. Plan a bit of time for this, but focus on the key messages. 

1. YouTube
2. YouTube also has its own function to create automatic subtitles.
3. Here's how it works:
4. Upload your video.
5. Then navigate to the YouTube Studio.

Then go to "Subtitles"

and select the video you want to edit.

The "Video Subtitles" mask opens.

YouTube has created an automatic subtitle that you can now check and/or edit. For this click "Duplicate and Edit".

1. Errors often creep in with automatic translation - it's best to check the text, adjust it and set the right timing.
2. Finally, check if your subtitle is displayed correctly. Click on your video and activate the subtitle.
3. Important: If the video already contains a subtitle that you have already inserted in the raw file, you can simply delete the automatically added subtitle from YouTube. LinkedIn – Image Posts
4. As soon as you upload an image on LinkedIn, the function automatically pops up.
5. Here's how it works
6. Upload your image.
7. Click on Alt-Text.
   ⁠

Add your alternative text.
⁠LinkedIn – Video Posts

Upload your video.

Subtitles can only be added on LinkedIn by a srt. file.

Upload this and the subtitle appears.
⁠

1. Twitter – Image: Posts
2. Here's how it works:
3. Upload your image.

Click on "Edit".
⁠

1. Navigate to "Alt" and enter your alternative text.
   ⁠
2. Twitter – Video
3. Upload your video.

Click on "Upload Caption File"

Add a srt. file.
⁠

1. In addition, these functions are also partially available on other social media management platforms such as
2. or
3. . Additionally, it is a good idea to use subtitles already when editing the video.

On Adobe Premiere Pro

1. subtitles can be added relatively easily. There you can also individualize the font and the text background.
2. 5. These tools help you post accessibly
3. Additional software for

can be found and compared on HootsuiteOMR ReviewsSprout Social. In total, we have listed over 30 social media tools there that can assist you in posting accessibly. So take a look and compare the tools using the authentic and verified user reviews.
⁠6. SummaryAs we see: Posting accessibly is not as hard as it sounds - and everyone can join in, including you! If we want to visibly do something to strengthen and promote diversity, we should all take a look at ourselves and start with ourselves. These little additions do not harm and only take a few minutes of time - and the effect is worth it. Because all those who go along at this point show: Promoting diversity is not lip service, we also put this into practice. Accessibility on social media thus also means setting an example.

5. Diese Tools helfen Euch beim barrierefreien Posten

Weitere Software für Social Media Suites könnt Ihr auf OMR Reviews finden und vergleichen. Insgesamt haben wir dort über 30 Social-Media-Tools gelistet, die Euch beim barrierefreien Posten unterstützen können. Also schaut vorbei und vergleicht die Tools mithilfe der authentischen und verifizierten Nutzerbewertungen.

Hootsuite

Swat.io

SocialHub

Fanpage Karma

Agorapulse

Sprout Social

⁠6. Fazit

Wie wir sehen: Barrierefrei zu posten ist nicht so schwer, wie es klingt – und jeder kann mitmachen, auch Ihr! Wenn wir sichtbar etwas dafür tun wollen Diversität zu stärken und zu fördern, sollten wir uns alle an der eigenen Nase fassen und bei uns selbst beginnen. Diese kleinen Zusätze schaden nicht und nehmen nur wenige Minuten Zeit in Anspruch – und der Effekt lohnt sich. Denn alle, die an dieser Stelle mitgehen zeigen: Diversität zu fördern ist kein Lippenbekenntnis, wir setzen das auch in unseren Taten um. Barrierefreiheit auf Social Media bedeutet damit auch ein Zeichen zu setzen.