Alexa Heinrich isn’t afraid to be blunt about what companies need to do to create better accessibility on social media.
“I have no shame in reaching out to brands when I see them doing something that I think is inaccessible and trying to educate them in the nicest way possible. Because I know a lot of people don't, you know, they don't create inaccessible content, because they want to be malicious, they just don't know.”
Heinrich, the social media manager for Saint Petersburg College in Florida, runs Accessible Social. The site was created to support her May-release book, “Accessible Social: A beginner’s guide to creating inclusive social media content.” Heinrich says it is a result of her wanting to expand her learning beyond resources like the WC3 guidelines and disability Twitter’s plethora of first-person stories about inaccessibility.
Addressing the lack of accessible social media resources
“Most of the information out there when it comes to digital accessibility is for websites, web pages, and apps. And it's not really for social media content. A lot of it applies, but there wasn't really something specific out there. I found blog posts, different websites, but nothing that was very cohesive to what I needed. So I started to write and tweet and blog about accessibility, specifically for social media since I'm a social media strategist.”
Heinrich grew up with social media as a millennial rather than going to school to study it as a craft. She says she’s learned to stress how important it is to ensure creating accessible social media content is a full team effort. She says that, too often, the onus falls on the small social media team rather than being a natural by-product of an access-focused workflow.
“I usually say that creating accessible social media content is the responsibility of everyone within the content creation process, not just the social media manager or whoever clicks the final button. So we need to educate our colleagues and our co workers about why it's important so that they can back us up when need be when someone wants to push back [and say] ‘Oh well, we don't need to make it accessible.’ Yes, we do.”
Two success stories
For Alexa, and yes she has heard all the Amazon-related jokes, nagging large corporations into action has come with the occasional benefit. Including free ice cream courtesy of Ben and Jerry’s.
“They're big about social advocacy on a number of topics. They're still not very consistent about it, but they try to remember to write alt texts. Because I pointed out to them, Your graphics are great, but they should really include alt text so that someone using a screen reader can actually understand what the image is.’ And they thanked me and they said they forwarded the information on to the digital team.”
In 2021, Heinrich wrote a piece for Adweek that highlighted Taco Bell’s lack of captions on a video. Soon after, a video with captions appeared. She says that providing alt text and captions on all videos are two key areas in which everyone who creates social media content can improve. A third is to refrain from using non-standard fonts which, like the overuse of emojis, can be difficult on those using screen readers.
“[I want] for people to stop using the strange alternative fonts that we see pop up on social media a lot now because they are not accessible for a lot of assistive devices. And, speaking as a typographer and a designer, they are just ugly. I wish that people would stop using those.”
The future of social media accessibility is ever-changing
Just like any area of accessibility, the terrain is always changing. As her book’s release date grew nearer, Heinrich realized that new areas to write about had already emerged. Now that the foundations of digital accessibility are “muscle memory,” she’s working to identify words that she didn’t know had offensive or harmful origins.
“I think my learning point right now is getting better at inclusive language. Because there are so many words out there that you don't realize they have a negative origin story or a negative impact on certain demographics.”
When asked how others can advocate for social media accessibility, Heinrich says that everyone is capable of advocating. It just takes a little effort.
“I think education is the hallmark of a good advocate because it's not just yelling. I mean, I'm really good at the yelling part, but I think wanting to educate others and turn other people into advocates really makes you a good advocate. Because then you're not doing the work alone.”
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