Many State Agencies also use various social media platforms to communicate information to the public. It's critical that our communications through these platforms are accessible as they are elsewhere.
The recommendations throughout the rest of this guide apply equally to the information agencies post on social media. Below is some specific information on how to add alternative text and captions to your social media posts. Visit the accessibility guide pages for these topics for more general information about alt text or captions.
- Add Alt text /Captions to photos and video posted to social media.
- For more information on alternative text for images visit Accessibility Guide Images/ Graphics
- For information on captions in general visit Accessibility Guide Multi-media page
- Social media biography should have
- Information on the agency,
- Link to official website and
- Contact method if possible.
- Post documents to State websites and link to those rather than post directly to social media
Facebook supports alternative text for images and allows you to add a captioning file to your video. You could also use an open captioned video so they're present by default.
- Alt Text for images on Facebook
- Facebook Help; Adding Captions to Video
- Live captioning for Facebook Live
Instagram supports alternative text for images. It does not have captioning support for regular posts and stories. IG does have auto-captioning for IGTV (its longer format video), but there doesn't appear to be a mechanism to correct captions. Because of this, you'll need to use open captioning to make captions part of the video itself.
Twitter supports alternative text for images. It supports captions only for those using it's Media Center Platform, otherwise you'll need to use open captioning to make captions part of the video itself.
YouTube
YouTube supports closed captioning and has an auto-captioning feature. YouTube's auto-captioning is not accurate enough to be sufficient on its own. You can use this tool to get an initial transcript and timing, then should go in and make corrections to the captioning through YouTube Studio. You can also use an open captioned video, so they're present by default.
Vimeo
Vimeo supports captioning as it allows you to add a captioning file to your video. You could also use an open captioned video so they're present by default.