If you use social media for any classroom work, you will want be sure it meets accessibility standards as well. The two main things to check are Alt Text and Captions. These tips should help.
Image Descriptions
All images on school social media channels must include an image description or alt-text.
How to Include Image Descriptions
You can choose to include an image description in the bottom of the post caption or use one of the pre-built fields on most major social media channels. Here's where to find the alt text field on Facebook, Twitter, Hootsuite, and Instagram.
- Facebook: Once you've loaded an image file into your post, hover over the image until two grayed-out buttons appear. Click the edit button. Once in the photo editing window, click on the alt text section and fill in your brief image description into the field to override the auto-generated alt text.
- Tip: If you forget to add alt text before publishing your post, you can still make your image accessible. Facebook allows you to edit an image's alt text after it has been published. Click on the photo, then hover over the lower right corner until the word "options" appears. Click "options" and then select "Change Alt Text" from the menu.
- Twitter/X: The first step is to enable image descriptions by visiting Settings and Privacy > Accessibility > Compose Image Descriptions. Once image descriptions are enabled, a new field will appear at the bottom of an image when one is uploaded in the Compose new Tweet window. Click "add description" to fill in a brief image description.
- Instagram: Before you hit "Share," select "Advanced Settings" at the bottom of the screen. In the Advanced Settings screen, select "Write Alt Text" under the "Accessibility" heading. Then, fill in your brief image description in the available field.
Image Description/Alt-Text Tips
- You don't have to paint a long, detailed word-picture. Instead, think about what information, emotion or tone the image is trying to convey and describe that.
- Be sure to include any info a person would need to participate in a "program, service or activity" hosted by the university.
- When using infographics, avoid redundancy and include only information that is not already covered in the post copy in the alt-text.
- Use general terms and avoid specialized jargon, if possible.
Captions
All videos (including livestreams) must have captions when they are posted. If you cannot post the video natively with captions, a link to an accessible version of the video is required either in the post copy or in a follow-up comment or tweet. Visit our captions page for detailed tips.
Caption Tips
- You can use YouTube or Facebook's auto-generate function, but you must manually edit them because they are created as one big block of text without punctuation.
- If you're going to post a video to both YouTube and Facebook, you can generate and correct your captions in YouTube first. Then, you can download that finished caption file as an SRT and upload it to Facebook to caption the Facebook version of the video. (Note: this only works when going from YouTube to Facebook and not the other way around.)
- Both closed captions and open (or burned-in) captions make your content accessible to your audience. However, closed captions offer an advantage in that they can be turned on or off by your viewers, putting them in control.
- Internal videos (e.g., closed group) that are unlisted and not public may not require captioning. However, you must let your audience know that captioning will be provided if an accommodation request is made. For ADA compliance questions, please contact the ADA Coordinator.
- Visit our Captions page to learn the options available when captioning videos.
