A Commitment to Social Media Accessibility: Procedure, Process, and Practice

Introduction:

As part of its commitment to digital accessibility, the University of Mississippi is actively working to ensure that our social media messaging is part of that initiative. With research and experience proving that social media is becoming one of the most effective ways to communicate and engage with multiple constituent groups in higher education, our university wants to ensure that our social media content is accessible for all. Over the last year, the Division of Outreach and Continuing Education has partnered with the university’s Marketing and Communications department to drive awareness of accessibility and also send a strong message of the importance of social media accessibility through policy, procedures, practice, and training.

Session Overview:

This presentation will discuss the importance of social media accessibility in higher eduction and outline the steps our university is taking to build solid procedures that encourage best practices to foster social media accessibility, not only for official university accounts but also for departmental, school, and student organizational accounts. We will explore the strategic partnerships and the training program that we have developed at the University of Mississippi. The presentation will also address our experience with accessible live streaming on social media and suggested apps for captioning social media video.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the use, importance, and impact of social media in higher education.
• Recognize the impact of non-accessible social media content.
• Explore the development of partnerships on campus that are instrumental in developing accessible content.
• Review key elements of our social media accessibility training program