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Social Media

Accessibility Guidelines

 

Accessibility 

Our goal is to provide the best user experience possible for as many people as possible, regardless of our differences.

To do that, we're shifting away from the one-size-fits-all approach that centers around the idea of “average users” and working to make sure our content is accessible to all users.

These accessibility guidelines help a broad range of users by addressing barriers and providing a variety of ways for people to engage.

Images

  • Add Alt text
  • Click Edit Photo (paintbrush icon), then click Alt Text.
  • The automatically generated text will be shown on the left side of your photo. 
  • Click Override generated alt text to edit it.
  • Add your Alt-Text. 
  • Click Save.
  • It’s recommended to use high resolution branded Florida Poly photos rather than graphics.
  • If you are creating a graphic, avoid using large amounts of text and keep the text to a minimum.
  • Avoid using graphics with poor color contrast.

Alt Text

  • Alt text should be clear & concise
  • Should convey the meaning of the image
  • If you couldn’t see it, what is meaningful in the image
  • Automatic alt text 
  • Uses object recognition technology to create a description of a photo
  • Do not use the auto generated alt text

GIF

  • Graphics Interchange Format
  • Avoid flashing
  • Should stop after 5 seconds or have a way to pause or stop
  • May need to use a video instead
  • Add text to the post to describe GIF meaning 
  • Check color contrast of text

Video

  • Captioning (post production & live)
  • Self captioning or vendor caption
  • Audio Descriptions
  • Currently no way to add
  • Instead: use descriptive language

Facebook Live

  • You can enable automatic captions.
  • They're not always the best and you need a third-party captioning tool to set them up
  • You can also have an interpreter on camera for live video
  • State that a "captioned video of the live event will be made available at a later time" and then caption the live video after the event.

Emojis

Emojipedia - how screen readers read emojis.

  • 😎 Smiling Face with Sunglasses
  • 🤓 Nerd Face
  • 🧐 Face with Monocle
  • 😕 Confused Face

Images and Gifs

How to add alt text to images and gifs.

  • Add your photo.
  • Click Add description.
  • Type your description of the image. Click the Save
  • The limit is 1000 characters.
  • To edit the description, re-open the Add description dialog prior to posting the Tweet. 
  • You can add a description to each image in a Tweet.
  • Note: Image descriptions cannot be added to videos.

Twitter Chats

Provide summaries

Long threads 

  • Consider providing a detailed recap by email or on your site

Stories & Reels - Captioning

  • Videos where someone is talking directly into the camera because they recorded the video themselves on their phone.
  • Instagram will create automatic captions and gives you the capability to make any corrects.
  • Step #1: Record or upload an Instagram Story or Reel.
  • Step #2: Tap the sticker icon.
  • Step #3: Select the "Caption" sticker. 
  • Step #4: Select your text format and move the text where you would like it placed. You also have the option to change the color of the text. 
  • After following those four steps your captions will autogenerate. Be sure to read your captions before posting to Instagram to assure they have transcribed correctly. 

Note: The Instagram captioning stickers are currently only available in English and English speaking countries. 

In-Feed Posting

Adding alt text to your photo posts. Instagram kind of hides that feature under a couple of screens, but here's how you do it.

If you're looking for some guidance on writing alt text for social media images, here are some developed some guidelines and tips that may be helpful.

If you want to schedule IG posts ahead of time with alt text on them and your IG is a business account, you can use Facebook's Creator Studio.

 

Captioning and Transcript

Provide your own captions or Vendor Caption Service

  • Fix out-generated
  • Upload a transcript to captions and YouTube will sync
  • Include punctuation
  • Identify speakers

When possible also add a link to a transcript

  • Ex. a link to a Google Doc.
  • This is especially important if your content doesn’t have sound.

Descriptive Language

  • Describing meaningful things in your video, introduce speakers when possible.
  • If you closed your eyes, can you still get all the meaning from your video.

Audio Descriptions

  • Adds another track to the video.  
  • YouTube does not support toggling audio Descriptions on and off.

Text Accessibility

  • Sufficient Color Contrast
  • Refrain from using small text
  • Use simple fonts like Arial, Open Sans, etc.

To be compliant with ADA requirements all hashtags are camel cased. For example: #PhoenixProud.   

University Relations has implemented several common hashtags to be used to identify certain kinds of social media content. 

Used for general posts in all social media channels 

  • #FLPoly 
  • #FLPolyLife 
  • #PhoenixProud 
  • #StrongerTogether (Used in COVID related social content)  
  • #FLPoly24 (For all incoming freshmen classes) 
  • #FLPolyApp (Referring to the Florida Poly Mobile App)   

Buildings:  

  • #FLPolyIST 
  • #FLPolyCampus
  • #FLPolyARC 

Announcement about a new ranking, accreditation or academic/celebratory content:  

  • #FLPolyRising  

Graduation:  

  • #FLPolyGrad 
  • #FLPolyAlumni  

Events:  

  • #FLPolyFamilyDay  
  • #FLPolyPiRun 
  • #FLPolyGameExpo  

University Department Hashtags:  

  • #PhoenixFitChallenge  
  • #EdOutReach (Educational Outreach) 
  • #FLPolyAlumni 
  • #AMI (Institute) 
  • #FIPR (Institute)
  • #FLPolyPD (Police Department)