Today we recognize the 31st anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). But there is still more work to be done to ensure people of all abilities have access to information. Here are some tips from for marketers from @AlexaHeinrich to improve the accessibility of our social media.

• Add alt text. This is probably the most important tip I can give when it comes to making your content accessible for blind and low vision users. Alt text is a physical description of the image(s) you post that an assistive device like a screen reader will pick up and say aloud to a user. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest all allow you to write custom alt text for your posts, which is preferred to auto-generated alt text.
• Camel Case your hashtags. If you have a compound hashtag, capitalize the first letter in each word. So instead of #womeninmarketing it would be #WomenInMarketing. Capital letters, spaces, and punctuation help assistive devices and programs identify the separating words, allowing them to say compound hashtags correctly and not as one amalgamated word. You may also see this method called Pascal Case or Title Case.
• Caption your videos. This should already be something we all do since captioning has been a standard best practice for years now. Whether you do closed captions (can be turned on and off) or open captions (permanently on, burned into the video), captions make your video content more accessible and more marketable since a majority of internet users watch videos with the ound off. You can easily do closed captioning through YouTube by editing the auto-captions they generate for your video or add open captions through apps like MixCaptions, Clips, Clipomatic, AutoCap, Kapwing, and Threads.
• Use emojis smartly and strategically. Every emoji has a description assigned to it. This means it's usually better to put any emojis at the end of your posts and tweets to avoid their description making the rest of your content confusing for screen reader users. Sadly, this means that emojis as bullet points are probably not a good idea. If you want to double-check the description of an emoji, check out emojipedia.org.
• Don't use alternative characters. I know it's super popular to use external websites to generate fancy look fonts for digital content, but those alternative characters can't always be read by assistive devices. Usually, they get skipped or turned into indistinguishable noises. It's best to stick to the fonts and formatting options already available on a platform. Forcing a font or style onto a platform can cause accessibility issues. 𝐈 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐝𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐟𝐟 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬.

Time to audit our communications!

#ADA2021 #DisabilityPrideMonth #DisabilityAwareness #DisabilityInclusion

Image Credit: ADA National Network (adata.org)

“As the country continues to emerge and adjust to post-pandemic life, it is evident that the growth and disruption of the streaming revolution continues at pace, according to a recent Horowitz Research survey of content viewers nationwide. The data show that streaming now supplants MVPD services in penetration and is closing in on time spent by viewers.

​Along with dominance comes accountability. Consumers are feeling the pain of chaos (too many streaming services) and fatigue as content is unpredictably fragmented across numerous, access-restricted streams.” Source: Horowitz Research

See the research summary here.

June is #pridemonth. Check out this fascinating digital series from Colorlines. It highlights the contributions of a diverse range of cultural and artistic icons - from Frida Kahlo to James Baldwin to Gladys Bentley.
​There Is No Culture Without LGBTQIA+ Pride | Colorlines

Last week, a group of leading Asian American executives launched the Asian American Foundation, an organization aimed at increasing opportunities for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) and putting a stop to anti-AAPI violence and discrimination. The foundation’s board pledged $125 million—the biggest philanthropic commitment ever made in support of AAPI groups and causes—and a range of partners (including McKinsey) together pledged another $125 million.
​
​A 2019 McKinsey analysis showed that Asian leaders made up just 3 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs—half the Asian American share of the US population. To advance workplace equity, organizations should start by tracking representation along the promotion pipeline, identifying where there are drop-offs, and asking why those drop-offs are occurring. Experiences can vary significantly across subgroups—which means collecting disaggregated data can yield important insights.
Source: McKinsey & Co, May 12, 2021  #stopasianhate

An inaugural group of leading national CEOs and organizations from across business, nonprofit, philanthropy, and academia have come together to combat the racial wealth gap with the launch of NinetyToZero. Driven by the goal to transform the economic landscape that has led to a 90% racial wealth gap between white and Black Americans,
NinetyToZero seeks to bring deliberate, collective action to counteract centuries of discrimination, segregation, and financial exploitation -- so that all Americans have the opportunity to thrive. Closing the racial wealth gap could increase the U.S. GDP by $1.5 trillion in the next 10 years.
​Source: NinetyToZero  You can view the announcement here: https://tinyurl.com/nt2mczy8
#blackwealth #blackbusinessmatters

Violence and hate speech against Asians and Asian Americans have increased sharply since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, but unfortunately the United States has a long history of marginalizing and othering people of Asian descent.

The insightful and though-provoking documentary series Asian Americans was first presented in 2020. In light of recent events, PBS is now streaming all episodes for free. 
​https://www.pbs.org/show/asian-americans/

#stopasianhate

​Celebrate #BlackHistoryMonth - discover new perspectives and deepen your knowledge by checking out Comcast NBCUniversal's Voices of the Civil Rights Movement platform. Launched in 2013 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, today the project presents more than 17 hours of gripping firsthand accounts, historical moments and stories submitted by the public  .https://voicesofthecivilrightsmovement.com/
 

​In honor of #BlackHistoryMonth, let’s celebrate the innovations of America’s Black #entrepreneurs. This PBS series, first aired in 2019, highlights the achievements of inventors, business builders and executives of African descent. You can stream many episodes now at https://lnkd.in/gdFP2ac​

​As we move beyond the tumult of 2020, here’s to a Healthy & Happy New Year in 2021!