Table of Contents
What Is Accessible Content?
As I always say at the start of each of my articles – accessibility means a lot of different things in a lot of different contexts. As a Designer, this for me means ensuring that my work is legible and perceivable to all people. Accessibility is about removing barriers by utilising inclusive design principles and assistive technology (among other things) so that everyone is given the same opportunities to enjoy the content.
When I use the word ‘content,’ I am referring to creative work that is put out on social media for public consumption. This can be anything from an Instagram carousel to a TikTok video or even a website article such as this one.
So by putting these two ideas together, ‘accessible content,’ would be social media content that considers accessibility and inclusivity features so that a wide audience may interact with it – regardless of disability.
How Accessible Is Social Media?
Sometimes, social media platforms give us the tools to make our content accessible. Most social media platforms let us add alt text to our photos so screen readers can describe images, or add captions to our videos so people can watch them without requiring the audio content. However, there are other inclusive design principles which those making the content must account for such as colour contrast and typography choices.
However, social media platforms generally are quite limited in their accessibility features. For instance, Instagram Stories don’t offer alt text or other descriptive technologies that they do offer on grid posts. Seemingly small tweaks like these can actually have a major impact on the disabled community and mean that large numbers of people are suddenly unable to interact with our content.
So is the solution to not use these platforms at all? No. The disabled community wants to be able to use these tools in the same way that non-disabled people are entitled to, it isn’t that they should be excluded from these spaces because of the lack of thought on the end of the developer. Quite often, disabled people and accessibility experts have created their own ‘workarounds’ for the gaps in provided accessibility features. While these may not always be perfect, they offer disabled people a renewed chance to be able to interact with social media content that they might not otherwise have.
Even at the most basic level, accounting for these in your content can demonstrate allyship and thought, but it doesn’t end there. In this article, we will discuss some of the more in-depth benefits to accessible content and why your brand should be incorporating it into their social media strategy.
How Can Accessible Content Benefit Your Brand?
Accessible content can benefit your brand in a number of different ways. From ethical arguments through to practical benefits, there isn’t one overruling reason why your content should be accessible.
What the following points will demonstrate though is that accessible content benefits everyone, not just disabled people. If you have ever used closed captions or dark mode then you have benefitted from accessibility features, regardless of whether or not you consider yourself disabled.
1. Reaching A Larger Audience
24% of the UK population are disabled (gov.uk) – that’s almost 1 in 4 people. Among them are the visually impaired, the deaf/HoH and neurodivergent communities just to mention a few. They also all benefit from different types of accessibility features. Sometimes this is more apparent, such as visually impaired people benefitting from alt text, but sometimes less so such as neurodivergent people benefitting from a slightly lower colour contrast or an image description if a post is overwhelming to them.
Therefore, by extension, if your content does not consider accessibility then you are missing out on reaching nearly a quarter of the UK population.
However it can be even more complex than this, especially when we revisit my earlier point that accessibility features don’t solely benefit disabled people. 41% of Americans prefer to watch online content with subtitles, (preply.com) and this statistic does not consider disability.
One reason why people like to watch content with subtitles is so they can watch content quietly in public places without disturbing others. The same study as before found that 57% of Americans watch shows, movies and videos in public, with this stat going up to 74% among Gen Z. 43% of those surveyed watch this type of media on public transport.
For your company, accessible content doesn’t simply mean making it perceivable to disabled people, but additionally co-ordinates it with the watching habits of the public. In this example, if your videos don’t have captions, then approaching half of people will scroll away from it if they are shown it while in public. So using accessibility features here would lead to a higher engagement rate.
2. Boosting SEO Performance
Accessibility features can indirectly benefit your brand’s SEO performance on both website and social media. This means that doing good can also benefit you at the same time – a win for everyone!
Hootsuite acknowledges that while alt text doesn’t make your posts more likely to come up on social media platforms, it does make them more likely to appear within the app’s own search functions. They also quite rightly acknowledge that this is the secondary benefit of alt text, the primary being creating an equitable experience for disabled users.
In terms of websites, accessibility is also important because it leads to better user experience, which then improves SEO. One of the metrics that search engines use to determine which websites rank higher is user experience, this is because bounce rates will be lower and organic traffic will be higher (handtalk.me).
If you run an online blog, accessibility considerations will be what lead to a better user experience, especially for your disabled readers. For instance, can they modify the size of the text? Will their screen reader be able to navigate through the webpage in a logical order? These are the sorts of things that can be considered in addition to social platform considerations such as alt text and colour contrast.
3. Brand Reputation and Legal Requirements
Not considering accessibility can lead to legal problems for your brand, which can then lead to a tarnished brand reputation.
There are real world examples of brands that have been sued due to a lack of accessibility. In 2016, Domino’s Pizza was sued by an individual named Guillermo Robles (sqli.com). He is a screen reader user who’s technology was unable to work with both the Domino’s website and app when trying to create a custom pizza.
In this case, the Americans with Disabilities Act was invoked because Robles was discriminated against due to him not being able to order a pizza. All major governing bodies have similar legislations to protect the rights of disabled people, such as the more recent European Accessibility Act.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) form strong guidance for how such media can be accessible, and is often cited in legal cases and requirements. Failure to follow this guidance can lead to your brand being found to be negligent and discriminatory towards disabled people.
The result was that in 2022 Domino’s Pizza had to reach a settlement with Robles, showing that there is a risk that such problems can also be costly for your brand.Incidents such as these can appear isolated, but they can have long-reaching effects on your brand. Gen Z in particular very much care about who they are buying from, wanting to make informed decisions that ensure they are buying from the most ethical suppliers. One study showed that 81% of Gen Z have their brand choices and preferences significantly impacted by multicultural and diverse consumers (digiday.com). If disabled people are unable to buy from your company, you may also be turning away non-disabled Gen Z consumers as a knock-on effect.
Conclusion
Accessibility should be an important part of your brand’s social media strategy. Not only is it the right thing to do, and is a legal requirement, but it can lead to your brand having stronger interactions with your consumers.
If you would like personalised advice on how your brand can be making the most accessible, impactful content, then contact us at Purple Goat Agency and we would be happy to guide your brand in the right direction.
