5 Things all UGC Creator and Brand Pages can do to Make Their Content Inclusive and Accessible for Disabled Users
Social media is a great marketing tool and creative outlet, as it is easily accessible, but to some, like those of us in the disabled community, it is a means of keeping connected in world that doesn’t embrace our needs for community participation.
For instance, our requests for working or studying from home were only granted because it impacted everybody during the Covid lockdowns, but many were swiftly abandoned again when face-to-face returned as the norm.
While disabilities are usually at the forefront of accessibility, it doesn’t mean non-disabled people don’t benefit from accessibility features, because we all do.
It is important to factor in these things as part of the creative process, while also making maximum impact with your content.
Inclusivity relies on the disabled community feeling seen and welcomed by creators and brands alike.
1. Captions on Everything!
Captions are not just for those who are d/Deaf and hard of hearing.
It is a very simple feature to add and I have been very impressed by most video content making use of captions!
It is paramount not only to the disabled community, especially neurodivergent individuals, but they can also help people who speak English as a second language, or as a bonus, are just in a very noisy environment and don’t have headphones on them!
Everybody wins.
Image description: A screenshot of an Instagram Reel. There are two white boxes superimposed near the middle with black text written in them. The top one has an arrow pointing up with text that reads “Open Captions”, and the lower one has an arrow pointing down with text that reads “Closed Captions”.
There are two types of captions - open and closed.
Closed captions are those that can be turned on and off by the user (auto-generated or .SRT based), and open captions are embedded into the content itself.
Captions differ from subtitles which are translations to and from different languages.
On Instagram, you can opt to view automatically generated closed captions on Reels, and there’s even a setting to allow translated subtitles when posting (find it in the advanced settings tab on your post), but the best practice would be to have embedded (open) captions with a transcript of the exact dialogue, so that the viewer can follow along.
Tip: If your content has sounds that are not speech, include them too!
2. Image Descriptions in Post Captions, not Just Alt-Text
Image descriptions are crucial if you want your audience to understand what is in your photograph or text based images.
For those who use screen readers (assistive technology that converts text to speech), such as those who are blind or have low vision, it doesn’t always pick up alt-text on Instagram, which means they may not be able to engage with a post.
Other times, users may have their screens dimmed or nighttime/warming filter if they have photophobia (intense sensitivity to light) so it doesn’t hurt their eyes, but a non-disabled person probably has their screen dimmed because it saves battery life.
All you have to do is an an extra paragraph at the end of your caption and describe what is in the image, like objects and people, what they look like, what’s in the background.
In the case of text-based images like screenshots and infographics, put the text in the caption as well.
Tip: The more details you provide, the better for the audience, especially if the images are difficult to make out (e.g. teaser campaign with blurred/pixelated component).
3. #CamelCase your hashtags
Remember the #susanalbumparty meme?
Camel Case could have prevented a massive amount of embarrassment by clarifying that the hashtag was #SusanAlbumParty and not the other, unfortunate, thing everybody read it as.
Image description: A screenshot of an X/Twitter post from user Susan Boyle/@SusanBoyleHQ that reads “Susan will be answering your questions at her exclusive album listening party on Saturday. Send in your questions #susanalbumparty Susan HQ”.
Simply capitalise the first letter of each word in your hashtag and it becomes easier for the user to read and for screen readers to accurately speech.
If your hashtag has an acronym or initialism, capitalise all initials and first letters, e.g. if you were to use the hashtag #kbeauty, write it as #KBeauty and not #Kbeauty, otherwise it may be read out as “K-byu-tee”.
Tip: If you try to write out your #CamelCase hashtags in the Instagram caption section and then click on the hashtag that comes up, it will reset your text to lowercase. Copy & paste them from a notepad app.
4. Contrast and fonts matter
Boomers think that the younger generations can’t read cursive handwriting because they weren’t taught (we were), but for dyslexic and neurodivergent people, we struggle to read clearly printed text at the best of times.
It can also be difficult for those who have colour blindness to distinguish between colours without contrast.
For example, I use Verdana on my blog as it is easy to read with its default kerning (character spacing) and line spacing.
Image description: An infographic featuring four mauve squares over a white background with text written inside. The top left square is a light mauve colour with white text that reads “This is very hard to read. I bet you are struggling”. The top right square has white text that reads “This is still hard to read, but it is an improvement.”. The bottom left square has bolder white text that reads “Try a different font weight, like bold!” for two lines, the next line is black and reads “Or a dark colour.”, and the last two lines are burgundy and read “It can even match your theme.”. The bottom right square has white text with a drop shadow that reads “Try different text effects, like the classic drop shadow,” for three lines, the next line has white text with a thin black stroke on it that reads “stroke,”, and the text on the last line has both a stroke and drop shadow, and reads “or both.”. There is a grey watermark in the middle of the image that reads “@rivetlicker”.
A professional web or graphic designer knows that these elements can make or break a brand. Ensuring the use of proper contrasting colours and easy-to-read fonts will allow for inclusion and thus a greater reach.
Avoid using light coloured text on light backgrounds (or dark on dark) unless there is a contrasting feature like a stroke (outline) or solid background for the text.
Tip: You don’t have to skimp on creative freedom, you can have your pretty colours and cute fonts, just make sure to add a transcript in the caption!
5. Ditch the strobe and flashing effects in your video based content
Strobe lights seem like the perfect way to create a party atmosphere or showcase creative video editing, but when you consider that a portion of the population can end up in a life-threatening situation because of them, it doesn’t seem like a good marketing tactic to kill potential customers or harm your followers.
Strobe lights and other fast flashing graphics can trigger seizures and other neurological events like vertigo and migraine attacks in photosensitive individuals.
I know I mentioned using contrasting colours in the previous tip, but try to avoid clustering contrasting colour too closely together (e.g. stripes, zig-zags) as they too can create a strobing effect when scrolling.
As much as there are options on modern devices to dim strobing content or prevent auto-playing of GIF and videos, I have not yet seen Instagram actually take any measures to enable this feature on video content containing these effects. Avoiding them will ensure your content is easy to watch.
Tip: Try to use easy-on-the-eye transitions between scenes in your videos (we Migraineurs really appreciate it!)
Overall, creating an inclusive online community needs to take disability into account. It doesn’t cost you anything and you might just encourage more allies to work on their accessibility!
Lara donated payment for this article to Dreams 2 Live 4. Donate here. You can also donate directly to the charity here.