Social Media Accessibility
Purchase College is committed to diversity and inclusivity. All should have the opportunity to view digital content.
The following guidelines address creating ‘accessible’ social media content. For guidelines and direction on using social media on behalf of Purchase College, please contact Communications and Creative Services.
In addition to the guidelines below, please follow best practices, as noted in the LiveWhale Annual CMS training.
All content posted on behalf of Purchase College must meet accessibility guidelines.
Questions to Ask
Images:
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Do I have alt tags on my images, that is alternative text that describes an image?
- Alt tags should be robust but should not contain unnecessary verbiage or be redundant, like picture of or image of.
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Do I have text in images?
- If so, can I put the text in a text field instead of embedding the text in an image?
Videos:
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Are my videos closed captioned?
- All videos must be closed captioned and the captioning must be accurate.
- Did I review the captioning and correct errors?
- Videos without sound, such as a mime, must also include an audio file.
- An audio-only file must have a transcript.
Links:
- Do my links underline on hover or have a physical change other than color to indicate that they are links?
- Did I avoid linking the url in its native format, such as starting the link with https://
- Have I created links with keywords rather than click here or for more information?
- Is my copy concise?
- If I have a font choice, is it an easy-to-read font and does the foreground (font) and background have a high degree of contrast?
- Am I linking to accessible content? PDFs are often not accessible and strongly discouraged.
Social Media Platform Guidelines for Accessibility provides step-by-step instructions to create accessible social media content for widely utilized platforms.
Additional Considerations
QR Codes:
Although QR codes are a convenient way to disseminate information, they are strongly discouraged.
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They can be challenging for people who are visually impaired or have limited motor skills or just unable to use their cameras while scrolling online.
- Purchase College strong discourages the use of links where the destination is unknown, such as shortened urls and QR codes. The destination may not be clear to the viewer, leading to a security issue.
If you have any questions regarding accessibility, please contact the Accessibility Committee.