Are you taking extra procedures to ensure your content is accessible to everyone?
If not, or you’re unsure what that means, you’ll want to learn this #ContentWritingChat recap.
Digital accessibility isn’t something that’s optional pertaining to online brands today. It’s essential.
#ContentWritingChat Recap: Digital Accessibility Guidelines for Social Media with Alexa Heinrich
Hey, everyone!
Welcome to another #ContentWritingChat !
For today' h chat, our guest web host is @HashtagHeyAlexa .
She' s joining all of us to share some tips on making your content more accessible across social media.
Be sure to give her a hot welcome! picture. twitter. com/WvpVqZsiDA
— Express Writers | Your Content Writing Partner (@ExpWriters) July 6, 2021
Our guest host for this week’s chat was Alexa Heinrich , who is a digital accessibility often recommend. Digital accessibility has become a much more prevalent topic in recent times, as much brands are striving in making their content more inclusive by being accessible to everybody in their online community. As articles creators here at Express Authors, we felt it was a crucial conversation to have during #ContentWritingChat and Alexa shared a few amazing wisdom with us.
Let’s dive to the recap to learn where everyone can make accessibility improvements.
Q1: What do a person mean by digital convenience?
First and foremost, it is important to understand what exactly digital accessibility means so we can easily see why it’s such an thing for our brands. Here are some great answers:
A1: Digital accessibility indicates making sure that you’re creating plus delivering content that everyone can access, understand, and enjoy no matter the status of the physical or cognitive capability. This includes users with listening to and/or vision disabilities. #ContentWritingChat
— Alexa Heinrich (she/her) (@HashtagHeyAlexa) July 6, 2021
Alexa is spot-on with her answer. Digital accessibility is about making sure your content can be accessed, understood, plus enjoyed by anyone. It should never be inaccessible in order to someone based on their actual or cognitive abilities.
A1: Availability in digital isn' t just access to the internet. It' s also the kind of content a person produce. Can the hard of hearing enjoy your movie bc you used near captions? Is your font dimension large enough to accommodate different vision? Accessible = All of the In. #ContentWritingChat
— Rachel Wendte (@rkwendte) July 6, 2021
Asking yourself the particular questions that Rachel shared in her answer is a good place to get started. Do your videos have captions to allow them to be watched by those with a hearing impairment? Is it actually easy to read the typeface you’re using on your website or graphics you share on social media? These are stuff that, unfortunately, many of us overlook.
A1: Digital accessibility means making all of digital content accessible in order to everyone. The process is meant to get rid of barriers that may be caused by disability, age, situational in terms of people accessing websites, social media and so forth #ContentWritingChat
— Dorothy Clarke – Media Strategist (she/her) (@sclarkeOville) July 6, 2021
Essentially, you want to take the appropriate steps to remove any barriers that will someone may encounter when trying to consume your content. Place yourself in another man or woman shoes and ask if they’d be able to enjoy what you have shared.
Q2: Why is it important for your digital content to be available?
By now, the answer to this question may be quite obvious. However , here are some good reasons why accessibility needs to be on top of your priority list:
A2: Inclusion should always be a top priority when you create content. A huge part of the global population has a severe sensory impairment. Accessibility helps ensure that you’re not excluding anyone from the conversation because of the disability. #ContentWritingChat
— Alexa Heinrich (she/her) (@HashtagHeyAlexa) July six, 2021
Because Alexa pointed out, there are a lot of individuals with sensory impairments. As a result, they may not be able to consume your content if you haven’t implemented certain actions to make it easy for them to do this.
A2 continued: Digital marketers must also keep in mind that not every disability is seen or permanent. Many people also don’t disclose their disability, so you shouldn’t assume that digital accessibility doesn’t apply to your content or your audience. #ContentWritingChat
— Alexa Heinrich (she/her) (@HashtagHeyAlexa) July 6, 2021
Alexa went on to indicate that not all disabilities are usually visible to the general public, nor are they all permanent. For many people, they don’t discuss their own disabilities, which means you may not even be aware of them. Plus, you never know when a loyal member of your own community may experience something that leaves them temporarily impaired. By creating accessible content, you’ll have peace of mind knowing that they will still be able to consume everything you share online.
A2: The more people who can enjoy & appreciate your articles bc you' ve managed to get easy to do so, the more brand name advocates and sales you' ll have.
People shout from your rooftops when they see something good. If your brand commits and shows up, you' lmost all see benefits. #ContentWritingChat
— Rachel Wendte (@rkwendte) July six, 2021
All in all, creating accessible content can help you expand your reach to some much wider audience because you aren’t excluding anyone. This could lead to more brand advocates and an increase in sales for your business.
A2: Because your customers come from all walks associated with life and should be handled fairly. Making it easier to gain access to your digital content, helps it be easier to make the sale. #Contentwritingchat https://t.co/F0FHvXrTi1
— Carlarjenkins (@carlarjenkins) July 6, 2021
Carla felt the same way. You have more opportunities to produce sales and it’s furthermore easier to get people to consider that next step when you’ve created more inclusive articles. And like she mentioned, everyone deserves to be dealt with fairly, so you don’t want to ignore those who are differently abled than you.
A2 for me it is important because you want to communicate as well as you can and without your content being inclusive then you are usually limiting your impact and your audience #ContentWritingChat
— Carrie Eddins (@blondepreneur) July 6, 2021
Carrie sees that without implementing digital accessibility practices, you’re ultimately limiting your reach and your influence online. That’s something no brand wants!
A2. A, because you don' t want to marginalize an entire group of people who would be thinking about your products and can' t access the information. B, to increase reach through different mediums and audiences. #ContentWritingChat
— Manisha (@ManishaDot) July 6, 2021
When you take the time to make your content accessible in multiple ways, you’re going to achieve an even bigger audience than you thought possible.
Q3: What are some ways to create accessible content material on social media?
To ensure your social media articles is accessible to the masses, maintain these tips in mind:
A3: There are lots of fundamental ways to create accessible content! Put compound hashtags within #CamelCase . Use emojis in moderation and set them at the end of posts and tweets. Caption videos. Include alt text to pictures. Avoid using alternative characters or ASCII art. #ContentWritingChat
— Alexa Heinrich (she/her) (@HashtagHeyAlexa) July 6, 2021
For starters, Alexa suggests modifying the way you type your hashtags. Many of us are guilty of writing our hashtags in all lowercase, when they should be in Camel Case. That’s when you might capitalize the first letter of every new word in the hashtag. It makes it easier with regard to screen readers to decipher. For example , #ContentWritingChat is created in Camel Case.
Alexa also considered mindful about emoji placement. They’re better at the end of your post. Captions should always be added on videos. Plus don’t forget to include alt text as well.
A3.
– Apply #AltText to pictures and gifs
– Caption videos
– Use legible font styles and sizes
– Lastly make sure your form of articles works seamlessly on different devices (PC, mobile, Ipads) #ContentWritingChat
— Manisha (@ManishaDot) July 6, 2021
Manisha also mentioned adding altbier text to images distributed on social media, while furthermore captioning videos, and using legible fonts. Another important point that will she brought up is checking out to make sure your content is easily obtainable on a variety of devices, from desktop to mobile to tablet.
A3: To create accessible content material, try:
1 . Upping the contrast between your text & background.
2 . Adding a zoom in/zoom to images.
3. Eliminating stylized fonts that can’t be read by Google or display readers.
4. Upping the size of your text 4-6pts. #ContentWritingChat
— Rachel Wendte (@rkwendte) July six, 2021
How many times have you seen a graphic on social media that was difficult to read because of the comparison between the text and the history? Unfortunately, it happens. People who already have difficulty seeing will have even more trouble making away what your graphics say if you aren’t careful. Be mindful of this when designing.
Rachel also said to enable people to zoom into pictures, use legible fonts, plus consider increasing the size of your text.
A3: Create content in more than one form. I use both text and video clip on my blog posts. I also add closed captioning on all of my standalone and livestream videos. #ContentWritingChat https://t.co/h7rUPUW0FH
— Carlarjenkins (@carlarjenkins) July six, 2021
Carla suggests taking one part of content and turning it into several formats. For instance, she includes both text and video into her blog posts. And she also makes sure to add captions to all of her standalone and livestream videos, which means they can be enjoyed with or without sound.
Q4: Are you able to elaborate on writing betagt text? What makes for good in die jahre gekommen (umgangssprachlich) text?
If you know anything about SEO, then you’ve probably heard about oll (derb) text. While it can be helpful when trying to rank your content searching engines, it’s more good for those with vision impairments. Here’s what you need to know when writing it:
A4: Writing alt textual content is a completely subjective exercise, but you really just want to focus on describing the key physical information in your images, especially if they’re pertinent details or complement the written part of your own post or tweet. #ContentWritingChat
— Alexa Heinrich (she/her) (@HashtagHeyAlexa) July 6, 2021
As Alexa distributed, the whole point of alt text is to write the description of the image. In this way, someone who isn’t able to in fact see it (or if it doesn’t load for some reason), the person consuming your content will know what it’s an image of.
A4 continued: If your image features compressed copy, it’s important that you include that copy in your altbier text too, otherwise the screen reader won’t be able to read it. That’s one of the many reasons event flyers and similar graphics don’t fit in on social! #ContentWritingChat
— Alexa Heinrich (she/her) (@HashtagHeyAlexa) This summer 6, 2021
A4 continued: And also if you have a graphic that will repeats the same copy from your written part of your publish or tweet, you need to write alt text that shows that, otherwise screen reader users could be left wondering what your image was! #ContentWritingChat
— Alexa Heinrich (she/her) (@HashtagHeyAlexa) July 6, 2021
She also shared that it’s a good idea to include any copy that’s on the image within the oll text. Then, there will never ever be any confusion about what your image contains.
A4: Good alt text describes exactly what the image is and provides context that can' to be seen without the visual.
So for example, writing " the sun over the lake" gives a general idea.
" A red & red sun begins to set on the lake" gives a much more clear picture. #ContentWritingChat
— Rachel Wendte (@rkwendte) July 6, 2021
This is a excellent example of a descriptive bit of alt text. Keep Rachel’s advice in mind!
A4. Describe the important details of the image and then sum it up. The text should be such that in case you close your eyes or even didn' t have the picture in front of you, you need to be able to imagine it (the relevant info at least) #ContentWritingChat
— Manisha (@ManishaDot) July 6, 2021
If you really want to test the effectiveness of your betagt text, close your eye and envision the exact description you’ve written to see if this creates a clear picture in the mind.
Q5: What are some ways to make use of emojis in content so that they don’ t cause accessibility issues?
Who would have thought that cute emojis could create a problem when it comes to digital accessibility? Unfortunately, it is true. And you may want to begin rethinking emoji placement right after reading this:
A5: I always suggest that you place emojis at the end of your posts and tweets to avoid making your written content confusing. Each symbol has a unique description designated to it and assistive devices and programs will look over that description to a consumer. #ContentWritingChat
— Alexa Heinrich (she/her) (@HashtagHeyAlexa) July 6, 2021
To ensure your articles is accessible, Alexa advises putting emojis at the end of your social media marketing posts. Otherwise, it can be rather confusing when screen visitors are reciting the text out of your post.
A5 continued: So essentially, if you were to type “Hi
i am Alexa” a screen viewer would translate it since “Hi Waving Hand: Lighting Skin Tone my name is Alexa”. This too means you probably shouldn’t make use of emojis as bullet factors either. #ContentWritingChat
— Alexa Heinrich (she/her) (@HashtagHeyAlexa) July six, 2021
This is why in her tweet over, the way a screen audience would translate the text with an emoji in the middle of a sentence isn’t user-friendly. It may find very confusing to someone who is not able to see the post for themselves.
A5 continued: A super useful website for learning about the various descriptions and appearances associated with emojis across devices, platforms, and browsers is @Emojipedia ! Definitely check them out. #ContentWritingChat
— Alexa Heinrich (she/her) (@HashtagHeyAlexa) July 6, 2021
Alexa’s tip would be to check out Emojipedia if you want to learn more about the descriptions of emojis. This will help you understand what somebody may hear when using the screen reader to consume your articles.
A5: Add relevant emojis initially and at the end but not in the centre. Emojis in the middle disrupts visitors. #Contentwritingchat https://t.co/kXbcEdo3hG
— Carlarjenkins (@carlarjenkins) July 6, 2021
Carla is on a single page as Alexa plus suggests avoiding putting emojis in the middle of a sentence. Place them at the beginning or the end and that means you don’t disrupt the flow.
Q6: Any kind of apps or programs you would recommend for captioning video clips?
Captioning your own social media videos does’t need to be such a chore. In fact , there are a number of tools that can get this process much easier. Here are some to look at:
A6: I usually use @YouTube with regard to closed captioning, and it is nice because anyone may have a YouTube channel. I add my video as unlisted, let YouTube auto-caption it, edit those auto-captions so they’re accurate, and then make it public. Boom, done! #ContentWritingChat
— Alexa Heinrich (she/her) (@HashtagHeyAlexa) July 6, 2021
When possible, make use of the built-in caption feature that lots of platforms offer. For instance, Alexa uses YouTube’s automatically generated captions. However , we know they typically make a few mistakes, so it’s worth going in and manually making edits for clarity.
A6 continued: You can even download your captions SRT file from YouTube and employ it if you upload your video directly to Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. For open captions, which are the captions you can not toggle off, I use the app @MixCaptions . #ContentWritingChat
— Alexa Heinrich (she/her) (@HashtagHeyAlexa) July 6, 2021
One more option is to upload captions via an SRT file. If you’re posting a video on YouTube, you can download the captions and then use it when posting to Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
Alexa also recommends trying Mix Captions as a tool to help make the process easier.
A6: I just make use of the built-in closed captioning device across their platforms (I do review and edit my captions for clarity. ). #ContentWritingChat https://t.co/Q4dIqm4jSc
— Carlarjenkins (@carlarjenkins) July 6, 2021
Carla usually relies on the built-in caption feature that many platforms have got. She just makes sure to take the time to edit them prior to publishing. It’s great to find out so many brands implementing this particular feature and making it simpler for brands to incorporate captions.
Q7: How can marketers get leadership aboard with accessibility?
Now, the final task gets the entire team to concur that digital accessibility is vital. To help you with this, you’ll want to remember this advice:
A7: Be direct. Creating accessible content make a difference your marketing efforts and exactly how many people you actually reach. Pictures with alt text could be accessed by more people and we all know the stat that 85% of online users watch videos with the sound off. #ContentWritingChat
— Alexa Heinrich (she/her) (@HashtagHeyAlexa) July six, 2021
A7 continued: Accessible content can also keep you from obtaining sued. While digital content can be tricky when it comes to legality and compliance, it’s best to be proactive about the content material you create and not reactive. Be accessible now, prevent trouble later. #ContentWritingChat
— Alexa Heinrich (she/her) (@HashtagHeyAlexa) July 6, 2021
As Alexa pointed out, becoming accessible is just good business at the end of the day. It’s going to have a positive impact on your marketing and advertising efforts, as you’ll be able to reach more people. In addition, you want to avoid any lawful trouble down the line, which is why getting accessible now can be helpful.
A7 carried on: Most importantly, you and your leadership should just care about the experience anyone has when they engage with your content. We ought to all care if people are being excluded from a conversation or can’t access information and facts. #ContentWritingChat
— Alexa Heinrich (she/her) (@HashtagHeyAlexa) July 6, 2021
And ultimately, taking steps toward digital accessibility shows you care about your own community. It shows that you’re aware of those who may have afflictions and that you want to serve them in the best way possible.
A7: Talk up! People only understand what they know.
Always speak your truth. You never know who must hear it. #ContentWritingChat https://t.co/TWFymwMCxu
— Lori Anding
|| Introverted SoMe extrovert (@southbaysome) July 6, 2021
The final piece of advice is this tip through Lori. Please make sure you talk up. If there are ways your company can be more available, take the initiative and share your ideas with regard to changing things.
Come hang out with us during the next #ContentWritingChat! We chat on the first Tuesday of every month at 10 AM Central. All you need to perform is follow @ExpWriters plus @writingchat for all the latest.
The post #ContentWritingChat Recap: Digital Accessibility Best Practices intended for Social Media with Alexa Heinrich appeared initial on Express Writers .