Social Media Accessibility

Making our social media community accessible to all aligns with our core values at William & Mary and fulfills a legal requirement to make content that pertains to the university's services, activities, and programs accessible. Providing image descriptions and captions also benefits Search Engine Optimization.

Image Descriptions

All images on university social media channels must include an image description or alt-text.

How to Include Image Descriptions

You can choose to include an image description in the bottom of the post caption or use one of the pre-built fields on most major social media channels. Here's where to find the alt text field on Facebook, Twitter, Hootsuite, and Instagram.

Facebook: Once you've loaded an image file into your post, hover over the image until two grayed-out buttons appear. Click the edit button. Once in the photo editing window, click on the alt text section and fill in your brief image description into the field to override the auto-generated alt text.
- Tip: If you forget to add alt text before publishing your post, you can still make your image accessible. Facebook allows you to edit an image's alt text after it has been published. Click on the photo, then hover over the lower right corner until the word "options" appears. Click "options" and then select "Change Alt Text" from the menu.
Twitter/X: The first step is to enable image descriptions by visiting Settings and Privacy > Accessibility > Compose Image Descriptions. Once image descriptions are enabled, a new field will appear at the bottom of an image when one is uploaded in the Compose new Tweet window. Click "add description" to fill in a brief image description.
Instagram: Before you hit "Share," select "Advanced Settings" at the bottom of the screen. In the Advanced Settings screen, select "Write Alt Text" under the "Accessibility" heading. Then, fill in your brief image description in the available field.

Image Description/Alt-Text Tips

You don't have to paint a long, detailed word-picture. Instead, think about what information, emotion or tone the image is trying to convey and describe that.
Be sure to include any info a person would need to participate in a "program, service or activity" hosted by the university.
When using infographics, avoid redundancy and include only information that is not already covered in the post copy in the alt-text.
Avoid assuming any person's gender, race, or identity. Leave that information out unless it's pertinent to the post. If it is pertinent to the post, always ask people how they identify before you write your image description.
Use general terms and avoid specialized jargon, if possible.

Captions

All videos (including livestreams) must have captions when they are posted. If you cannot post the video natively with captions, a link to an accessible version of the video is required either in the post copy or in a follow-up comment or tweet.

Caption Tips

You can use YouTube or Facebook's auto-generate function, but you must manually review them as they are only about 95% accurate and often incorrectly display proper nouns. For example, the university's name or the name of a speaker.
If you're going to post a video to both YouTube and Facebook, you can generate and correct your captions in YouTube first. Then, you can download that finished caption file as an SRT and upload it to Facebook to caption the Facebook version of the video. (Note: this only works when going from YouTube to Facebook and not the other way around.)
Both closed captions and open (or "burned in") captions make your content accessible to your audience. However, closed captions offer an advantage in that they can be turned on or off by your viewers, putting them in control.
Internal videos (e.g., closed group) that are unlisted and not public may not require captioning. However, you must let your audience know that captioning will be provided if an accommodation request is made. For ADA compliance questions, please contact the university's [[cacostello, ADA Coordinator]].
Visit our Captions page to learn the options available when captioning videos.

Captioning Services

To ensure your public videos are accessible, whether they are live or recorded, you may decide to enlist the help of a captioning service. While there are several options out there, University Web & Design has had good experiences with the following services:

Ai-Media (Access Innovation Media) for captioning live video.
- Please visit their website for pricing.
- 99% accurate.
- Human-generated captions in real time, with access to the captions after the event to make corrections.
- Ability to submit a list of words, names, and/or phrases to the captioner (e.g., Wren Building, William & Mary) to add to their vocabulary ahead of the stream to ensure they are spelled correctly and use proper style.
- To schedule your captioned live stream, contact Ai-Media, and they will walk you through the process. Tip: Be sure to indicate your billing information for efficient routing, as they have many W&M clients.
Rev.com is a recommended service for post-production captions.
- Please visit their website for pricing.
- 24-hour turnaround time.
- 99% accurate.
- Ability to edit the captions within the platform after they have been generated.

General Tips

Try using a screen reader or other assistive technology to better understand what is useful and what is frustrating. (VoiceOver for Apple or TalkBack for Android are two examples.)
Use camel case for hashtags, like #MondayMotivation.
It's typically more efficient to make one version of your content that is accessible, but if that's not an option, you can and must link to a separate, accessible version of the content.
Updating all of your published posts can seem like an overwhelming project. Focus on making sure all of your content moving forward is accessible, and only update past inaccessible content as time allows.