Digital Accessibility for Social Media

Guidelines for Social Media Accessibility

The new Title II Digital Accessibility Rule includes all University-affiliated social media content, so we must provide as much accessibility as a platform will allow.

As a rule for all social media content, please remember to include alternative text for all images that include all of the information within the image, as well as providing captioning for all videos. When using images that include important text such as with flyers and promotional graphics, it is important to include that information as text in the body of a post.

Other general guidelines include the use of plain language by avoiding jargon and acronyms and limiting the use of emojis and emoticons when possible. Visit the links below for information on how to add alternative text to images on popular social media platforms.

Alternative Text Resources

• UM Guide to Writing Alternative Text
• Facebook - Adding Alternative Text
• Instagram - Adding Alternative Text
• Twitter - Adding Alternative Text
• LinkedIn - Adding Alternative Text

Caption Resources

Captions MUST be edited for accuracy to meet the Title II requirements.

• Both Panopto and YouTube create auto-captions that can be easily edited or connected to our captioning system for captioning.
• Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook Reels allow you to edit auto-captions.
• Twitter allows you to upload a caption file 
  • CapCut is a free tool that has auto-captions that can then be edited for accuracy within the app or online
• Live captioning can be enabled for Instagram and Facebook. You can also Submit a Request for Live Captioning through our team.
  • If the live video is going to be shared widely after the event the captions must be edited for accuracy before distributing