Twenty-six percent of adults in the United States have some sort of disability – that’s about one in four people, or 61 million adults in this country. This large and underserved minority group represents a significant portion of the population. Businesses need to prioritize their efforts to deliver a digitally accessible user experience for this enormous market segment.
While we have posted previously about the importance of delivering an ADA compliant and accessible website, the fact of the matter is many organizations are still falling short, thus leaving this audience largely in the dark.
As community-based financial institutions, providing an accessible experience online should be as important to you as ensuring your brick-and-mortar facilities comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). People often won’t complain about an experience that isn’t accessible – they’ll just leave. The way you do business should take accessibility into consideration. So should the way you market your business.
We’ve compiled a list of 5 things you can do to make sure your social media content is more accessible to people with disabilities.
Provide descriptive image captions
In the United States, 4.6% of adults have some sort of visual impairment, and some of those people utilize screen readers to access technology. A screen reader is an assistive technology that converts the text, buttons, images, and other screen elements into speech or braille. Adding Alt Text, or descriptive image captions, allows screen readers to describe the image or graphic. The description should convey the content of the image, as well as transcribe any text.
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram all provide specific fields where alt text can be added. Image descriptions can also be added to the caption of your post.Use plain language
Keep your language simple and to the point. Your calls-to-action should be descriptive (“Apply online today!” versus “Click here”). Thinking about using emojis in your post? Consider how it will sound being read by a screen reader, and if it will be disruptive to the overall post messaging.Use #CamelCase hashtags
Have you ever struggled to discern just exactly what that hashtag was trying to say? Camel Case (capitalizing the first letter of each word in a hashtag), provides clarity to all users, and not just people utilizing assistive technology. Not only does camel case make a hashtag easier to read, it allows screen readers to properly speak the hashtag as the capitalization indicates the start of each new word.Caption your video content
While adding captions to your social media video posts used to be a somewhat convoluted process involving using multiple apps and tools, the major platforms have made it even easier to incorporate captions to your content. This allows users who are deaf or hard of hearing, people with auditory processing disorders, and others, to participate and consume your video content online.Promote inclusion in your imagery
Representation matters. A recent study showed that people with disabilities were only represented in 1.1% of online advertising. Incorporating diversity into your creative is not only beneficial for severely underrepresented communities, studies also show that when brands address representation, but it also has positive effects for the brand, resulting in an increase in ad recall lift, and brand loyalty.
Incorporating accessibility into all of the ways your organization does business allows you to serve a greater percentage of your community with the personalized touch, service, and care community-based FIs are known for.
Need a partner to create an accessible social media content calendar? Want to learn more about integrating ADA-compliant principles into your website? Give us a call today.