Social media guidelines at Warwick
Social Media
Introduction to accessible social media
Our social media channels form part of our obligation to accessible digital content, this means there are certain things we need to do which may take a few extra minutes but are worth the time in order to include everyone.
The new Brand Guidelines have already been checked for digital accessibility so if you are using the approved brand colours, fonts and layouts for graphics you will already meet many of the standards.
It is worth taking the extra time to review your posts against the checklist below to make sure they are as accessible as possible. Some of these like not using emojis as bullet points may go against current trends but it is more important to be accessible. Find out more about why we should make digital content accessible.
Please note: Some things which are best practice for online accessibility are not possible on certain platforms or when scheduling posts through Sprout Social
Checklist
Here is a simple checklist you can use to help ensure your social media posts are accessible to the widest audience possible:
- Hashtags should be written in camel case or Pascal Case (e.g. #DigitalAccessibility) and placed mainly in the comments where possible, with a couple of high priority campaign tags allowed towards the end of the post
- Emojis have been used in moderation, placed at the end of posts and not used as bullet points
- Any emojis that are used should be in the default yellow skin tone and not be used to convey meaning that isn't also in the text
- Some emojis have unexpected descriptions which can be confusing so it is worth checking the emojis you plan to use
- Do not use capital letters, tabs, spaces or special characters for decorative reasons
- I have written at a grade 9 level and avoided difficult words, metaphors, puns, contractions, abbreviations and acronyms where possible
- Images have descriptive alt text added on all platforms which facilitate it
- Graphics do not contain text or when they do it has been repeated as text and must have adequate colour contrast
- Best practice for video content is to include captions, transcript and audio description where possible. Please include as much as the platform will accommodate, live streams should also have captions.
- Ensure any embedded captions do not get covered by platform content such as channel names or video description
- Avoid flashing images or strobe lighting in videos
Check that your Emoji Mean what you think and represent the message you are looking to get across.
More detailed guidance and best practice examples can be found on the Accessible Social website.If you have a specific question or would like assistance with a campaign please reach out to the Social media Team.