Best Practices for Social Media Accessibility
originally published September 20th, 2020; updated July 26th, 2024
For further learning, study the work of: Sins Invalid, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Mia Mingus, Carol @HigherPriestess.
Content warnings
Content warnings, or trauma warnings, are used when our posts reference or explore content that could potentially be activating to peoples' nervous systems. You might see posts that begin with CW: or TW:, subsequently listing a variety of themes, such as racism, transphobia, disordered eating, body image, etc. Providing a CW gives people the opportunity to make empowered choices about the content they consume. A well-placed CW, prior to content that might unexpectedly catch someone off guard, serves as a pivot point, allowing viewers to make a choice from a place of agency.
Think of this as one way you might offer informed consent and practice trauma awareness on social media.
While our nervous systems will certainly experience varying degrees of activation while scrolling through social media, we can make mindful choices about the types of content we consume, and we can support our community in listening to what they need and cultivating boundaries.
When adding content warnings…
Always note the CW first, as a preface before you share the content:
In story posts, if you’re sharing content that might be activating, be sure to create one single story slide with the content warning, and then share the content
In feed posts, include your content warning at the very top of your caption or in the first carousel slide. Add enough text, or include ellipses or emojis, so that viewers tap “more,” thereby making the subsequent part of your caption only visible to someone who wishes to see it after reviewing the content warning (again, think: trauma-informed consent)
Consider including CWs for the following themes:
abuse or violence of any kind
harm of any kind, including racism, transphobia, antisemitism, etc.
sexual violence
disordered eating, body image, weight loss or numbers related to weight
self-harm or suicide
& more
Any time you speak to a highly sensitive subject, consider first prefacing your post with a content or trauma warning.
Alt text
There are two primary ways to make our images accessible for those who are using screen readers: alt text and image descriptions.
Alt text is is embedded to the photo and not displayed for viewers. It's usually a brief description of the primary image details, shared by screen readers. Alt text is meant to provide the main details of an image, and is usually 140 characters or shorter.
Instagram’s features change regularly; at this moment, you can find the alt text settings when you tap to create a new post—in the frame you see when you start writing a caption, locate “Advanced Settings” at the bottom of that screen. Tap that, then scroll down to Accessibility (it should be the last option in the Advanced Settings menu). Under Accessibility, tap “Write Alt Text.”
Note that Instagram does say it automatically creates alt text for your content. If you’d like to have any ownership over this (and I recommend that you do!), be sure to create your unique words for the image alt text. Again, 140 characters or less. Think one sentence. Also note that if you’re sharing a post with multiple slides, you’ll be prompted to add alt text for each one.
Image descriptions
Image descriptions are visible to viewers and consist of more detailed text explaining what the content encompasses. There are several things to remember when seeking to offer image descriptions:
Be sure to include as much information and details as possible about the graphic(s) you’re sharing, including words to describe clothing styles and colors, haircuts and colors, etc.
Note in your description that it’s a photo or graphic (meaning a marketing/promo image), i.e. “A photo of Tristan and their pup,” or “A graphic featuring a black and white image, underlaying text that reads…”
Place the image description in your caption if space allows. If your caption is too long, consider including something to the effect of “Image ID in comments” to direct screen readers to the comment for the image description.
If you’re sharing a carousel slide post, be sure to offer descriptions of each slide, i.e. "[Image ID: Slide 1 features….]
Be sure to actually include text to explain that you’re offering an image description so that screen readers will announce that part of the caption clearly—preface your image description with something to the effect of:
Image ID:
[Image:]
Pic:
…or some variation thereof
We are each responsible for creating alt text and image descriptions when sharing accessible content. Though there are auto-generators out there, my understanding is that they don’t suffice, and it’s best if we manually provide these points of accessibility.
Video captioning
Enable it. Your content will reach more people, disabled, neurodivergent, or not.
Hashtag considerations
CamelCase is the recommended practice of capitalizing the first letters of hashtags that include multiple words. CamelCase helps screen readers access the hashtags being usedl.
Next time you include hashtags in a post or comment, consider using CamelCase, i.e. #YogaAndSocialJustice #YogaAndSocialChange
Emoji usage & special characters
Including emojis in your captions may be effective and offer a sense of play to your words or tone. Consider minimizing the amount of emojis or special characters you use in each caption as over-emojizing can confuse screen readers, making it difficult for folks who rely on those devices to receive the message you’re offering. You might also spell out the emoji you use when you do decide to include one, such as: ♥︎♥︎♥︎ [three black heart emojis]