3 tips for more accessible social media

Organizations that want to stay relevant and respected must embrace inclusivity.

But inclusivity and accessibility are connected, especially on social media. Here are three tips to bring your social media program up to speed with these expectations:

1. Rethink hashtags and emojis. “Social media content must now be designed to connect all communities and amplify all voices,” says Hannah Bourgeois, public outreach officer at Broward MPO. “That means some social media conventions like hashtags need to be reconsidered.”

Hashtags can be challenging for those with dyslexia, cognitive disabilities and visual impairments—in part, because screen readers can’t decipher them.

Her advice: “Limit hashtags because the words flow together without spaces. When you have to use them, initial capitalize each word.” (This is also called “camel case.”)

Similarly, “Limit emojis and add them to the end your copy if you really want them,” suggests Bourgeois. “Because the code for emojis can be lengthy, screen readers have to read through that before jumping to the copy.”

Here’s a sampling of what blind people hear when using screen readers like VoiceOver to decipher emojis:

Those excerpts probably don’t quite convey the feeling you’re hoping to express.