Accessible Technology

Social Media Accessibility

Accessibility of social media content is the responsibility of platform managers across Michigan Tech. Without following these guidelines, our social media content—whether consumed through embeds on our websites or through the original platform itself—may not be accessible by users with disabilities.

Photos

Alternative text or ALT tags are imperative in ensuring that our photo content is accessible. Many social media platforms now allow their content creators to add alternative text to the images they post:

If the platform that you are using does not allow you to add alternative text to the images you post natively, you can do one of two things:

  1. If you are including no other text with the photo, include an image description or caption describing what is in the image along with the image you are posting.
  2. If you are including marketing language or other post content already, also include an image description in brackets afterward. For example: Register for our open house online. [Students studying on campus].

By posting an image caption or description within your social post, you are providing text that a screen reader can access.

Videos

Video captions or subtitles are necessary to make social media video accessible. If you plan to upload your video to YouTube, you can use their built-in subtitle and closed captions editor. You can also use a third-party captioning service like 3PlayMedia or Rev.

Once your video is captioned, the SRT caption file can be uploaded to most social media platforms—along with an MP4 file: