Social Media Accessibility Guidelines

At Fairleigh Dickinson University, we are committed to creating and sharing social media content that is accessible, engaging and welcoming to all audiences. The main university accounts, commonly known as FDU What’s New, will only post, share and repost content that meets the following standards of accessibility and complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Those who manage social media accounts associated with FDU are required to follow the same standards.

Images

  • All images shared on social media should have alternative text, commonly known as alt text.
  • Alt text is utilized by all major social media platforms. It can be easily added to posts within the post creation settings.
  • We strongly encourage adding alt text during a post’s creation, before the post is live on a platform. However, if you ever forget to add alt text, it is fine to edit a post to include alt text after it is posted.
  • If you are including alt text in a post’s settings, it is redundant to also include it within the post or caption, as people using screen readers will then have to hear it twice.
  • We discourage the use of text on images posted on social media.
  • When text is unavoidable, text should have a background to separate it from the image. Make sure the text is viewable for people with low vision by using a contrast checker.

Infographics and Flyers

  • We discourage the use of infographics and flyers posted on social media as it can be difficult to make the information in these formats accessible.
  • We do understand that these types of posts are sometimes necessary to convey information accurately. In these instances, all text and information from the graphic must be accessible in the post caption or alt text settings.
  • Make sure the text is viewable for people with low vision by using a contrast checker.

Videos

  • If a video features someone speaking, the video must have captions of the audio.
  • Captions can be either closed captions, where a user can turn them on and off, or open captions, where the text is embedded into the video and cannot be turned on or off.
  • Automatically generated or AI-generated captions are not accurate enough and do not fulfill this requirement unless they have been checked by a human.
  • Captions are not necessary if the only audio in a video is a song where the lyrics of the song are not important to understanding the meaning of the video.
  • If you are livestreaming video from an event, it is important to provide live captions. If it is not possible to have captions as the event is proceeding, provide captions if you are posting the video after the event.
  • Make sure the captions are viewable for people with low vision by using a contrast checker.
  • There are many tools available, such as Rev, that offer a free and easy way to generate captions for videos.
  • Videos should not contain any strobing or intense flashing effects.

Hashtags

  • Limit the use of hashtags in a post’s caption, knowing that screen readers will read all hashtags out to users.
  • If you must use hashtags, use CamelCase or PascalCase. Capitalize each new word in the hashtag, such as #FDUGrad, #GoKnights or #HornsUp. This formatting allows people using screen readers to hear the words individually, rather than as one word.

Animated GIFs and Emojis

  • GIFs are not available to be used on all platforms, and not all platforms have a way to add alt text to GIFs. If a platform doesn’t allow for alt text on GIFs, the content may be difficult for individuals who rely on screen readers to perceive.
  • Do not rely solely on animated GIF content in a social media post. When using animated GIFs, confirm that the post can be understood through its text content alone. You can also consider adding a brief description in brackets at the end of a post to account for this issue.
  • Use GIFs sparingly when commenting on other’s social media posts.
  • Screen readers will read emojis as their description. Because of this, it can be confusing if emojis are placed between words. Do not overuse emojis in social media posts.

Hyperlinks

  • Keep URLs short whenever possible because screen readers will read them out to users, just as if they were words strung together in a long hashtag.
  • There are many tools available, such as Bitly, that offer a free and easy way to shorten URLs.
  • Make sure all URLs are clickable and do not require someone to copy and paste the link into another browser.