That All May Social Media

That All May Read. That's the slogan of the National Library Services for the Blind and Print Disabled. I think about those words a lot. In 2018, the National Health Interview Survey found that over 32 million American adults experienced vision loss--that's loss of vision that can't be corrected, even with glasses or contacts. A different source, the American Printing House, estimates that over 55,000 children under the age of 21 had the same diagnosis. In a world that has become increasingly visual -- with eye-popping memes and long, drawn-out hashtags, marketing floods our consciousness from early in the morning to late every night, day after day after day. When we aren't intentional about reaching everyone, we omit huge chunks of the population. You can make your social media more accessible for others using the tools and ideas below.

• Hashtags
  Twenty years ago, hashtags weren't even a blip on the radar, but now they're everywhere. A good hashtag can be the force that gives a brand or a movement the visibility they're aiming for. A bad hashtag can disappear in the sea of hashtags or it can be misconstrued as something else entirely. Camel case hashtags are the best method to avoid misunderstandings and let eyes and screen readers more easily identify where the words in your hashtag begin and end. What is a camel case hashtag? It's a hashtag that capitalizes the first letter of each word. #thatallmayread becomes #ThatAllMayRead, and that's just better for everyone.
  
  
• Alt Text
  Alternative text, or alt text, describes an image or graphic for those who can't "read" the picture with their eyes. Technology has gotten better over the years and computers can attempt to fill in what an image shows, but that still won't be as clear as a succinct description from you. Some social media platforms allow you to fill in alt text in a special field when you're creating your post; others haven't made this adjustment yet. You can also choose to describe an image next to the image itself to help those who don't yet have screen readers. Text descriptions don't need to be long or flowery. Basic facts that add meaning to an image are all that is needed to get a point across.
  
  
• Font selection
  Everyone has been the victim of hard-to-read fonts. They can be pretty to look at, but absolutely impossible to decipher. Choosing fonts designed with legibility in mind, like Arial, will increase the amount of people you'll reach with your message.
  
  
• Contrasting colors
  An eye-catching image that pops off the page and draws in readers... that's what every content creator is hoping to make. When you're fashioning the perfect picture, it's good to remember that font colors can bleed into the background if they're too similar. Yellow on top of orange can be hard to puzzle out, but black on orange is clear and legible.
  

We hope these easy-to-implement pointers will inspire you to make your social media more accessible. Please reach out to the Mississippi Library Commission if you have any additional tips!