Author: Melanie Mudge
It’s been 19—yes, 19—years since MySpace launched in 2003 and started the social media revolution. In those nearly two decades, we’ve seen the rise and fall of many social media platforms (RIP Vine), as well as the transition of social networks from a place to poke your friends to a one-stop shop for everything from news to shopping to education to—oh yeah—the occasional post from loved ones.
As much as we already loved social media, the COVID-19 pandemic only increased our dependence on it, with average time spent using it daily coming in at 2 hours and 29 minutes, an increase of 3.5% over 2021. No matter how we feel about it, social media is a large part of how we communicate, learn, and interact.
Yet up to 15% of the world’s population is still being left out of the conversation because platforms have been slow to meet WCAG web accessibility requirements that would make their spaces equitable for all users. (Never heard of web accessibility before? We got you! Check out Scribely's Alt Text Masterclass article for an explanation.) This means that people with visual, auditory, and cognitive disabilities often meet barriers that make social media sites either unusable or extremely difficult to use.
But it’s 2022, and it shouldn’t be this way. It’s well known that these companies have incredible human and technological resources at their disposal, so it seems to be more a matter of not prioritizing accessibility than it is a matter of ability.
Thus, we decided to rate the major platforms’ commitment to lowering barriers by creating inclusive, equitable, and accessible spaces. Be forewarned! Though progress has been made in the last few years, we still have a long way to go.
How We Rated Each Platform’s Accessibility
We looked at a variety of factors when rating each platform, listed below. Based on how well they met each criteria, we then gave them an overall score out of 10, with 10 being fully accessible and going beyond compliance for content and 1 being not accessible at all/meeting no content accessibility requirements.
Criteria:
- Encourages Camel Case. Camel case can be read properly by screen readers and helps those with information-processing disorders to better decipher hashtags. #ThisIsCamelCase. #thisisnot. Platforms should have a prompt encouraging users to use camel case.
- Has Alt Text. Without alt text, images are inaccessible to blind and visually impaired users. (Haven’t heard of alt text? Check out our explainer.)
- Makes Alt Text Visible to Everyone. When alt text is hidden behind code for only screen readers to access, it’s easy to forget about it. If a platform makes it obvious, it helps people remember to add it.
- Has Auto-Captions. Captions help make videos accessible to Deaf/hard-of-hearing folks, so it’s important that it’s standard on platforms that have video.
- Allows Human-Generated Captions. Auto-captions aren’t always correct, so people need to be able to edit them and upload their own captions.
- Supports Transcripts, Both Auto and Human-Generated, for Videos. Transcripts make videos accessible to those who don’t/can’t use captions or screen readers.
- Has Audio Description for Videos. Audio descriptions allow blind and visually impaired users to understand what’s happening in a video beyond just what’s being said.
- Prioritizes Human-Generated Over AI. Despite how much platforms are investing in and touting the benefits of AI, the technology is not even close to ready for accessibility.
- Ease of Use of Each Accessibility Function. How many clicks does it take to access each feature? The more clicks, the fewer people will actually use them, so if they’re hard to find, platforms are creating a barrier for users.
- Has an Accessibility Statement and Invites Feedback. If platforms don’t have a statement about how they’re prioritizing accessibility requirements, big red flag!
- Provides Guidance for Accessibility Functions on Accessibility Support Pages. Platforms must ensure that everyday users can find and utilize every function. Barriers to using accessibility features need to be minimal to encourage wider adoption.
Note: This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of accessibility measures, but rather a starting place for evaluating social media platform accessibility. Several other measures, like color contrast and turning off video auto-play, are also important.
TikTok
Overall Score: 6 out of 10
Highlights: In many ways, TikTok has been more willing to meet accessibility requirements than other platforms, which has then forced other platforms (ahem, Instagram) to follow suit.
Improvements: It’s not immediately apparent if captions are available for live videos. Also, they could make functions (like captions) more customizable.
Breakdown:
Encourages Camel Case: No.
Has Alt Text: N/a, since TikTok doesn’t have image sharing.
Makes Alt Text Visible to Everyone: N/a.
Has Auto-Captioning: Yes, since April 2021 (TikTok Introduces Auto Captions).
Allows Human-Generated Video Captions: Yes (in English only). Users have the ability to edit auto-captions before publishing, which is pretty easy to do, but the style of the captions cannot be edited to have higher contrast.
Supports Transcripts, Both Auto and Human-Generated, for Videos: No. Transcripts are not available on this platform.
Has Audio Description: Yes, called “Voiceover.” When creating a video, use the Voiceover tool to record descriptions.
Prioritizes Human-Generated Over AI: No, relies on AI for auto-captions.
Ease of Use of Each Accessibility Function: Medium. Currently, both Captions and Voiceover aren’t visible when creating a video unless you click the down arrow to show more options.
Has an Accessibility Statement and Invites Feedback: Yes, albeit brief. It also lists all their current accessibility features (TikTok Accessibility Statement).
Provides Guidance for Accessibility Functions on Accessibility Support Pages: Yes, though they’re somewhat buried. On their support page, first select “Creating Videos,” then scroll to the bottom of the page and select “Accessibility” to see TikTok tutorials on using accessibility functions.
Other notable accessibility functions: Has a couple options for those with photosensitivity or epilepsy, as well as the ability to turn off animated video thumbnails.
Facebook/Instagram
Overall Score: 4 out of 10
Highlights: Has alt text and captions.
Improvements: Needs an accessibility statement and to work with disabled communities and groups to improve their platform in meaningful ways. Stories aren’t accessible to screen readers. Instagram’s API is still notoriously hard to work with and makes adding alt text via third-party scheduling software nearly impossible.
Breakdown:
Encourages Camel Case: No.
Has Alt Text: Yes and no. Yes for regular posts (though it takes multiple clicks on each platform to get to the place to input your description) and no for ads. If you run ads on Facebook, make sure your caption explains the image or you'll miss out.
Makes Alt Text Visible to Everyone: No.
Has Auto-Captioning: Yes. Added via a “sticker” (new as of March 2022) for regular videos and via Live settings for live streams - Facebook only (TechCrunch)
Allows Human-Generated Video Captions: Sort of. It allows you to edit auto-generated captions, but you can’t upload your own .SRT file.
Supports Transcripts, Both Auto and Human-Generated, for Videos: No.
Has Audio Description: Yes, also called “Voiceover.”
Prioritizes Human-Generated Over AI: No, uses AI for captions and alt text on images without user-generated alt text.
Ease of Use of Each Accessibility Function: Low. In addition to hiding functions behind several clicks, they also make it hard for other platforms (e.g. social media schedulers) to utilize those functions, especially on Instagram.
Has an Accessibility Statement and Invites Feedback: No.
Provides Guidance for Accessibility Functions on Accessibility Support Pages: Yes, but it’s minimal (Instagram Accessibility Support).
Other notable accessibility functions: None.
LinkedIn
Overall Score: 6 out of 10
Highlights: Has adopted WCAG 2.1 Level AA in the design and development of their platform.
Improvements: Carousel posts should also allow for alt text descriptions. Needs to have a caption function. Can’t add alt text to images in comments.
Breakdown:
Encourages Camel Case: No.
Has Alt Text: Yes, on images, not on carousel posts (does allow users to download the original PDF from a carousel). Bonus: The option to add alt text is visible directly under an uploaded image, instead of being hidden under “advanced” options.
Makes Alt Text Visible to Everyone: No.
Has Auto-Captioning: No.
Allows Human-Generated Video Captions: Yes, through a .SRT file (LinkedIn Caption Support).
Supports Transcripts, Both Auto and Human-Generated, for Videos: No, but they do provide transcripts for most of their LinkedIn Learning videos.
Has Audio Description: No. Users either need to add it to their videos before uploading to LinkedIn, or create a second version of the video, host it elsewhere, and link to it.
Prioritizes Human-Generated Over AI: Yes, does not generate alt text or captions.
Ease of Use of Each Accessibility Function: Medium.
Has an Accessibility Statement and Invites Feedback: Yes, read LinkedIn's Accessibility Statement.
Provides Guidance for Accessibility Functions on Accessibility Support Pages: Yes, but it’s not in its own category on their support page. You have to search “accessibility” to find related articles.
Other notable accessibility functions: They have a Disability Answer Desk, and they partner with Be My Eyes to provide assistance to blind and low-vision users via a live video call.
Twitter
Overall Score: 7 out of 10
Highlights: Possibly the most open and transparent platform about accessibility. In 2020, Twitter created a team that collaborates with the disabled community and accessibility consultants to help make the app more accessible. They have an ongoing list of functions they’ve added to meet accessibility requirements.
Improvements: Still lacks support for audio descriptions or transcripts. Does not have captioning for live streaming.
Breakdown:
Encourages Camel Case: Yes and no. All hashtags on the Trending page use camel case, but there’s no prompt when composing a tweet with hashtags.
Has Alt Text: Yes, for both still images and GIFs. Even allows users to set up an “image description reminder” if they keep forgetting to add image descriptions to their Tweets.
Makes Alt Text Visible to Everyone: The first and only (as of this writing) platform to do so via the ALT badge.
Has Auto-Captioning: Yes.
Allows Human-Generated Video Captions: Yes, users can upload .SRT caption files from the web, not the mobile app. Check out Twitter's guide to uploading captions.
Supports Transcripts, Both Auto and Human-Generated, for Videos: No.
Has Audio Description: No.
Prioritizes Human-Generated Over AI: Yes and no. They rely on AI to generate auto-captions, but they do not use AI to generate alt text.
Ease of Use of Each Accessibility Function: Medium-high. As mentioned, the ALT badge is visible on every image, but the image description reminder is pretty buried in settings (and notably, didn’t show up as an option for us when we tried to set it).
Has an Accessibility Statement and Invites Feedback: Yes. They invite feedback via their company-run accessibility account @TwitterA11y (A11y is short for accessibility—the word starts with a, ends with y, and has 11 letters in between).
Provides Guidance for Accessibility Functions on Accessibility Support Pages: Yes, including a helpful Twitter page on how to write great image descriptions.
Other notable accessibility functions: Users can also reduce motion/animation, prevent video autoplay, change screen contrast, and turn off sounds. In addition, they’ve improved the experience for screen reader users with details like pronouncing # as “hashtag” and reading shortened URLs.
Snapchat
Overall Score: 1 out of 10
Highlights: Honestly, none.
Improvements: Everything. Snapchat is the least accessible platform we reviewed.
Breakdown:
Encourages Camel Case: No.
Has Alt Text: No.
Makes Alt Text Visible to Everyone: No.
Has Auto-Captioning: No.
Allows Human-Generated Video Captions: Yes, but only for the Discover section, which is for content from major media producers.
Supports Transcripts, Both Auto and Human-Generated, for Videos: No.
Has Audio Description: No.
Prioritizes Human-Generated Over AI: No.
Ease of Use of Each Accessibility Function: 0 since they don’t have any.
Has an Accessibility Statement and Invites Feedback: No statement was readily discovered on their website or via Google search. When we searched their “newsroom” for announcements about new accessibility features, we got zilch.
Provides Guidance for Using Each Accessibility Function on Accessibility Support Pages
No. When we tried to make a request for help with accessibility, their site required a Snapchat username to proceed.
Other notable accessibility functions:
Released the Snapchat lens in April 2022 that teaches American Sign Language, which was created by Deaf employees who call themselves the “Deafengers.”
Conclusion
In case it isn’t yet apparent, platforms building accessibility functions into their platforms is way easier and causes higher adoption rates than users finding ways to make their content more accessible. The bottom line is that users should not have to invent clever workarounds to make their content accessible to all people. Platforms should make it simple, easy, and obvious, yet we’re still a long way from that.
Twitter seems to be leading the way with their openness and transparency, which we applaud. We hope that their efforts will push other platforms to not just follow suit, but seek to go above and beyond to become the most inclusive, accessible platform out there. It’s not only right, it’s also good business.
BONUS: Which social media scheduler is the most accessible?
Despite the abundance of social media scheduling software, we analyzed 20 platforms using the same checklist we use when deciding on any new software to use at Scribely. Do they allow adding alt text to images and captions to videos? Do they have an accessibility statement? Are there help articles related to accessibility functions?
Unfortunately, the landscape is bleak.
The only third-party software that has alt text support for Instagram is Sked Social BUT they do not have an alt text API integration with LinkedIn. The only platform that has an accessibility statement was Buffer. Several platforms (Sendible, Social Bee, Edgar, SmarterQueue, NapoleonCat, PostPlanner, Planable, Brandwatch) have no alt text to speak of, while the rest have alt text in varying degrees. Only Sprout Social, Hootsuite, and StatusBrew allow uploading .SRT files for video captions; otherwise, closed captioning is nonexistent.
So is there a clear winner? Unfortunately, no. If individuals and social media managers want to make their content accessible, there aren't many solutions available. If you’re already using one or looking to use a social media management tool, now’s a great time to contact your favorite one requesting these features!
- HeyOrca
- Sked
- Sprout Social
- AgoraPulse
- Hootsuite
- Buffer
- Loomly
- Later
- SocialPilot
- Sendible
- Social Bee
- Coschedule
- MavSocial
- Edgar
- eClincher
- StatusBrew
- NapoleonCat
- PostPlanner
- Planable
- Brandwatch
