Social media is a big part of how organisations communicate about their work.

We must make sure that social media posts are accessible so that everyone can understand them.

Always write in plain language.

 

You can look at our information page for more advice on how to do this. 

Sometimes you may have a limited word count so may need to use acronyms. Try not to do this but if you do use a hashtag so that people can click on it to find out more.

Do not use lots of emojis.

 

A screen reader is set up to automatically read emojis out loud.

 

One emoji is fine and can communicate an emotion, but hearing the description repeated lots of times can be frustrating. 

For example, out loud it will sound like “clapping hands, clapping hands, clapping hands, clapping hands.”

Write your hashtags in sentence case.

 

This helps people read the words. For example: #NothingAboutUsWithoutUs rather than #NOTHINGABOUTUSWITHOUTUS

Make sure your videos have subtitles.

It is useful for people with hearing impairments  or people using assistive devices, but also for everyone to understand different accents. 

Use image descriptions and alt-text

Screen-readers use image descriptions called alt-text to describe an image for people who are blind. They can also be useful to describe an image in an easy way.