Accessibility on social media was one of the topics I covered in my ‘Crisis Communications on a Shoestring Budget’ talk yesterday at the Public Sector Crisis Communications Conference in London.\u00a0 Excitingly, the concept of improving accessibility for graphics and images on social media was well received. In crisis or not, allowing for social media content to be accessible for everyone, including those who use a screen reader, is crucial to communicating effectively and inclusively.<\/p>\n
Whilst many agencies across the public sector have made advances in accessibility online, I believe there is still a gap when it comes to social media. Adding \u2018alt-text\u2019 to images and graphics allows for those with a screen reader to understand what other people can see. Although the adding of alt-text to images still isn\u2019t common practice, when it should be the norm. After reviewing a few government channels today, I was pleased to discover that there are now more agencies making their graphic social media posts accessible. My initial look around Twitter found that consistently using alt-text are DWP Digital and Public Health England, along with UK Parliament and the Department of Health and Social Care. After attending my talk, the Legal Aid Agency started making their graphics accessible the very next day \u2013 a fast and valuable move.<\/p>\n
Why aren’t accessible images and graphics common practice for every government channel on social media? I feel the answer has two parts: a lack of awareness, and a lack of capability. The lack of capability I believe, in part, rests with the restrictions imposed by social media publishing tools. \u00a0Depending on the tool an agency uses to post on social media, there are limitations for adding alt-text. Looking into this a little deeper, it appears Hootsuite has some capability, Zoho Social does not, and Buffer allows for alt-text to be added to Twitter but not LinkedIn. In short: it\u2019s not a process teams can do easily and consistently.<\/p>\n
If agencies can\u2019t login and access their social media channels natively due to security restrictions, it\u2019s even more important to explain everything in the text field of a post. Whilst this is best practice anyway, in the absence of alt-text, everything about the graphic needs to be in the body of a post so it is recognisable by a screen reader. This recent post by Department of Health and Social Care has alt-text, but even if it didn\u2019t, every important detail featuring in the infographic is explained in the text:<\/p>\n
\nUPDATE on #coronavirus<\/a> testing in the UK:<\/p>\n
As of 2PM on Friday 31 January 2020, a total of 177 tests have concluded:<\/p>\n
175 were confirmed negative.
2 positive.<\/p>\nUpdates will be published at 2PM daily until further notice.<\/p>\n
For latest information visit:
\u25b6\ufe0f https:\/\/t.co\/CZh5JdyN2Q<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/j0tsLpdXrb<\/a><\/p>\n— Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) January 31, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n