What accessibility means for a post
An accessible post is one that people can read, hear, see and understand regardless of their abilities or circumstances. That includes people who are blind or have low vision, people who are deaf or hard of hearing, people with dyslexia or other reading differences, people with cognitive or attention differences, and people with motor difficulties who may navigate with a keyboard or voice commands.
It also includes people in ordinary situations: someone watching a video on a train without headphones, reading in bright sunlight, using an older phone, or reading in a second language. Steps that help one group often help many.
Nobody can guarantee a post will work for everyone, and tools differ between places. The goal is to remove common barriers where you can.
Alt text for images
Alt text, short for alternative text, is a written description of an image that screen readers can announce and that appears when an image fails to load. Many places let you add it when you upload.
Good alt text:
- Describes what matters about the image in the context of your post.
- Is brief, typically a sentence or two.
- Does not start with “image of” or “photo of,” since the tool already says it is an image.
- Includes any text that appears in the image, if that text matters.
For example, for a photo of a bakery counter in a post about opening hours, a fair description is “Display case with trays of bread rolls and a hand-written sign listing new opening hours.” For a chart, summarize the main point, such as “Bar chart showing sign-ups rising each month from January to June,” and put details in the post text.
Decorative images that add nothing can be left out of the description where the tool allows it. Graphics and photo choices are covered further under post images.
Captions and transcripts for video and audio
Captions turn speech and important sounds into text. They help people who are deaf or hard of hearing, and many others who watch with the sound off. Some tools generate captions automatically, but automatic captions often contain mistakes, especially with names, technical words and accents. Read through and correct them.
For audio-only content such as voice notes or podcasts, consider offering a transcript or a short written summary. For short clips, on-screen text for key points is a helpful addition, though it is not a replacement for proper captions where they are available. The filming tips in the short video material also relate here, since clear, close sound makes captions easier to produce and more accurate.
Readable contrast and text size
Text needs to stand out from its background. Light gray on white, or white text on a pale photo, is hard for many people to read, and low contrast affects almost everyone in bright light.
- Choose strong contrast between text and background. Free contrast checkers are available online if you want to test a color pairing.
- Use a large, simple font for text on images.
- Avoid placing text over busy parts of a photo.
- Do not rely on color alone to carry meaning. If a chart uses red and green lines, add labels or different line styles so readers who have trouble telling those colors apart can still follow.
Plain language
Plain language helps people with reading differences, people who are tired or distracted, and those reading in a second language. It does not mean dull writing; it means making meaning easy to find.
- Use short sentences and common words.
- Explain abbreviations the first time you use them.
- Put the main point near the start.
- Avoid unexplained jargon, idioms and sarcasm that depends on tone, since these are easily misread, a problem familiar from written tone in workplace chat.
- Keep paragraphs short and use line breaks.
Writing clearly in this way also supports message clarity in other settings, and it makes a caption easier to scan.
Emoji, hashtags and special characters
Screen readers typically read out emoji by name, so a long string of them can become a tedious list of descriptions. Use a few, and keep them at the end of a sentence rather than in the middle of a message. When using hashtags with several words, capitalizing each word, for example “CommunityGarden,” generally makes them easier for people and screen readers to parse. Details on this are in the notes on hashtag use. Avoid decorative text styles made from special characters, because screen readers may read them as strange symbols or skip them.
Links, buttons and layout
Say what a link leads to rather than writing “click here.” Where a post has several links, keep them separated and descriptive. Avoid very long strings of characters where a shorter link is possible. Keep line breaks and lists simple and consistent.
Motion and flashing
Avoid rapidly flashing or strobing visuals, which can trigger seizures in some people. Allow viewers to pause moving content where the tool lets them, and avoid autoplay sound where you can control it. Short, gentle motion is usually better than constant movement, and the same thinking applies to ephemeral content that disappears before some people have time to read it.
Make it part of your routine
Accessibility is easier when it is built into your process than when it is added at the end. Some practical ways:
- Add an accessibility line to your content calendar, so that alt text and captions are a step, not an afterthought.
- Use a short checklist before publishing.
- Ask readers for feedback, and act on it when someone tells you a post was hard to use.
- Learn from people with lived experience of disability, who often have clear advice on what works.
Schools, public bodies and larger organizations are sometimes expected to meet accessibility standards, and for school outreach in particular it is worth checking what applies. Rules and legal expectations about accessibility vary by country and by sector, and this article is general information, not legal advice. Starting with small, regular improvements is usually more realistic than aiming for perfection.
A pre-posting checklist
- Does every meaningful image have alt text?
- Do videos have corrected captions?
- Is the text high-contrast and large enough?
- Is the wording plain, with the main point first?
- Are emoji and hashtags used sparingly and readably?
- Are links clearly described?