Accessible social media mini blog series

Ever have a social occasion that you know you should attend but you'd rather be at home in your PJ's binge-watching Netflix? Then the day comes, you thoroughly enjoy yourself and wish you hadn't wasted time dreading it!

My point? Accessibility can feel overwhelming but it's well worth getting out of your PJ's for.

There is so much to learn and understand but each bit you grasp will open your eyes and have you wondering why this isn't how we've always been designing and developing. 

It's intuitive, it's considerate and it's fascinating. But is it really that important? Well, the 14.1 million disabled people in the UK alone would probably say so. As would everyone else whose user experience is often improved as a result of accessibility considerations - think reading captions when in a noisy or quiet environment.

Disappointingly, a lot of online content is not accessible so many people struggle to access even the most basic of information.

Surprisingly, one content type that is often overlooked in terms of accessibility requirements is social media.

Fortunately, in recent years social media platforms have been working to improve accessibility. Most now provide tools, guidance or features to help people create more accessible posts and content.

Tomorrow, 16th May, is Global Accessibility Awareness Day (should I have opened with that?) and I'm going to be releasing a series of mini blogs full of hints and tips on creating accessible social media content. I'll cover emojis, hashtags, links and more. So I want to 'see' you back here then!