Why and how to use inclusive design for social media
Information distributed through social media is only as effective as the number of people who view it, and inaccessible content excludes a large segment of readers and viewers.
If you’re like me, you probably joined TikTok at the start of the pandemic. I was reluctant at first, not wanting to spend more time than necessary on another social media platform, but after 24 hours I was hooked.
While visual content provides a fun and expressive outlet for people. The experience isn’t the same for everyone. For a large portion of the population, some kinds of content is inaccessible. According to the World Health Organization, about 15% of the world’s population lives with some form of disability.
On TikTok, it’s common to see closed captioning, a crucial element for the inclusion of people with hearing impairments, and communicators should consider close captioning and other inclusive design practices on social media to benefit as many people as possible. If the effort is made to make content accessible, then more people can enjoy it.
Here are five tips to create accessible content for social media:
1. Provide an image description or alternative text.
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