Campus offices publishing on social media should use the accessibility features built in to each platform and follow the University's Social Media Guidelines. Alt Text for Images and Animated GIFs Alt text will be read aloud to non-sighted or low-sighted users who rely on screen reader technology to access content. A screen reader is a tool that reads all the written content and interactive elements on screen (links, buttons, menus, etc.). Follow alt text best practices when writing alt text. Alternative text (or alt text) should always be provided on images and animated GIFs that are posted, shared, or retweeted on social media. Avoid sharing or retweeting any image or animated GIF from another account that does not include alt text. On most social media platforms, alt text is only available to screen readers and not visible on screen for sighted users. However, Twitter makes alt text available to everyone. Images and GIFs with alt text on Twitter will include an "Alt" tag in the bottom left corner of the image. Clicking this tag will display the alt text to everybody, not just screen reader users. Captions Use captions to provide access to people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, or who are non-native speakers. CamelCase Hashtags Hashtags are an important component of social media posts. When authoring hashtags that are made up of multiple words, use initial capitalization, also known as CamelCase. This technique makes the hashtag easier to read and is more usable by screen readers since their synthesized voices can recognize and pronounce individual words, and won’t concatenate and garble them. Emojis and Emoticons Emojis displayed on a screen will be described by a screen reader. The 👏 emoji, for example, will be read aloud as “clapping hands.” Please be considerate of screen reader users by using emojis judiciously and adding spaces between them. Do not create emoticons with text. A screen reader will read a shrug ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ as: “macron, backslash, underline, katakana, underline, slash, macron.”
