Accessible Communications

This page runs through some top tips to consider in your communications to make them as accessible as possible. We have a Accessibility Guide to Student Activities which goes into further detail- which we would recommend reading thoroughly to consider how holistically your groups activities are able to be accessible.

Plain Text

Plain text is text that has no special formatting which means it can easily be read via a screen reader. Plain text can be the text that is already included in a graphic. 

The bulk of your social media post will probably be the text that accompanies an image or graphic. For the most part, social media networks do not allow you to alter text formats such as size and colour. However, the following can still help to ensure the post is as accessible as possible:

• Where possible, avoid using big chunks of text that are all in capital letters. If you need to emphasise something, and it is possible to do so, put it in bold.

• Supplement a post with a text-heavy graphic with a plain text version too.

• Make sure to capitalise all words in a hashtag e.g. #LoveYork, #RosesAreWhite, so screen readers can pick them up properly

Image Descriptions

Image descriptions are plain text explanations of an image, graphic, photograph, illustration or thumbnail of a video. They are important for visually impaired students or those using a screen reader on their device. Image descriptions can include but are not limited to:

• Placement of objects in the image

• Image style (painting, graph)

• Colours

• Names of people

• Clothes (if they are an important detail)

• Animals

• Placement of text

• Emotions, such as smiling

• Surroundings

In general, include any information that is important in understanding the context of the post.

Image descriptions:

• Should be around 125-150 characters in length. 

• Should include any text written on the graphic as screen readers will not pick this up.

• Should not include obvious details (e.g. ‘a dog with four legs, a nose and two ears’), overly poetic or detailed descriptions, emojis or multiple punctuation marks (e.g. student stands in front of accommodation block looking angry!!!’)

‘Where should I place the image description on a social media post?’

• Facebook - in the first comment of the post or in the caption of the image.

• Twitter - reply to your own tweet with the image description.

• Instagram - either in the text of the post or as the first comment.

  • Instagram stories - write out any sound/speech included on the post itself.

‘When are image descriptions not needed?’

Image descriptions are not necessary if:

• The graphic being used is very text heavy. In this case, the post should be supplemented with a plain text version rather than an image description.

Making Graphics

If you’re making graphics, it’s worth bearing the following in mind:

• All text on the graphic should be a minimum size of 12 points.

• Ensure there is a high contrast of colours used

  • Text should preferably be a dark colour on a white or light coloured background.

• Avoid using colour combinations that are susceptible to colour blindness, for example red/green and yellow/blue. Check the accessibility of colours online.

Making Accessible Videos

It’s important that our videos are accessible for deaf, hard of hearing, blind and partially sighted students. See below on how to do this:

• Subtitle every video uploaded online. 

• Both YouTube and Facebook have built-in functionality to generate automatic captions. However, if you use this function then make sure you edit the generated captions before publishing, correcting any errors and inputting punctuation. 

• You can use YouTube’s auto-generated captions to obtain an SRT file, download it and then upload the file to your video publisher on Facebook.

• Putting subtitles on videos on Instagram is more difficult as the network does not yet have any in-built functions to assist. In this case, the subtitles must be part of the video file itself. If this happens, please transcribe the video and get in touch with the marketing team.

• Any videos uploaded to YouTube should also include an image description of the thumbnail in the comments.

‘Isn’t subtitling videos really time-consuming?’

Using the techniques above may seem fiddly to begin with, but will become quicker as you get the hang of it. If you need further guidance, please reach out to us!

‘What if there is no way I can add subtitles to a video online?’

If you’ve tried everything and it's not working, transcribe the video and add this as a plain-text version as the first comment on the post. 

Content Warnings

Put simply, content warnings alert readers that the following content contains potentially distressing material. These allow students affected by such material to make an informed decision on whether they’d like to read on. Content warnings should be used if a post contains any content about:

• Sexual violence and/or abuse.

• Child abuse/paedophilia/incest.

• Animal cruelty or death.

• Self harm and suicide, which can happen in many forms.

• Eating disorders or body image.

• Violence, blood or injury

• Pornographic content

• Any quoted hateful language about a protected characteristic (e.g. transphobia, racism, religious based hatred, sexism, homophobia, phobias and ableism etc.)

If your post requires a content warning, then the finished post should look like this:

CW: Sexual violence

If you’ve been affected by sexual violence or abuse, get in touch with local charity Survive on 01904 642830 or take a look at the university’s web pages here https://bit.ly/2qVlLmt

If you’re a student at The University of York and have been affected by these issues or need support, get in touch with your College team or visit https://www.york.ac.uk/students/health/ to see what services and support we have available.

Contact your link staff member, Gen Andrews (g.andrews@yorksu.org), our Volunteering (volunteering@yorksu.org) or Marketing (marketing@yorksu.org) Teams