Yeah, another newsletter
Yeah, another newsletter
Welcome to my stream of consciousness
Full disclosure, I have no idea what I’m doing.
A friend told me the other day that I’m basically building a small online empire that’s focused almost entirely on digital accessibility and social media. I don’t hate that idea if only because I’ve apparently made it my mission in life to educate other digital marketers on what it means to create accessible content for social media. I just want the online world to be more inclusive, okay.
So here I am with one more thing, the other things being my website that still needs to be finished, my online Teachable course that also still needs to be finished, and a book that my friend Jeeves has convinced me to write and needs to be started.
Here goes nothing.
Alexa
Digital Accessibility Win of the Week
My area of expertise really is social media and not the web at large, but my gosh the revamped White House website is freaking gorgeous and deserves some love. The site is streamlined and clean with clear accessibility features built into it and alt text on every image (at least all the ones I’ve managed to inspect so far).
The White House digital team really did a bang-up job overhauling the site in such a short amount of time. Here’s to hoping they apply those same digital accessibility best practices to the White House social media accounts next. I see a lot of images that are missing alt text, my friends.
Digital Accessibility Fail of the Week
Is the Carl’s Jr. Twitter account okay? No really, what is going on? I certainly see my fair share of inaccessible tweets, but never so many consecutively from a major brand account. Here are just two from the recent string of extremely bad tweets the burger chain has posted.
If you’re not sure why these particular tweets are on my naughty list, check out the section of my website that goes over the use of icons and characters.
Have you recently spotted a major digital accessibility win or fail on social media? Send it to me! I might just feature it in my next newsletter. Feel free to email me at hello@therealalexa.com or you can DM me on Twitter. My inbox is always open!
You Should Retweet This
Did you binge-watch Bridgerton on Netflix with your thighs tightly clenched? Honestly, same. Netflix had me at a diverse cast set in Regency-era London. Sadly, the audio description for the series promo video didn’t do that diverse cast any justice and failed to identify the race of the characters.
Liz Gutman, an incredibly talented audio description writer and narrator, took it upon herself to write an introductory description of the show that was more reflective of its actors and actresses, and it is absolutely smashing.
Just the Tip
We’ll start with my favorite digital accessibility tip for social media: put your hashtags in #CamelCase. This method is also called #PascalCase and #TitleCase. I don’t personally care what you call it as long as you’re capitalizing each word in your compound hashtags so screen readers say them correctly. Easy peasy.
Looking for an easy way to double-check your social media content before posting it? Download my handy checklist and make sure you always have the basics of digital accessibility for social media covered!
One Last Thing
I swear, I’m almost done talking. This tweet definitely had me happy clapping at my desk, and I hope you have the same reaction.
Secrets, secrets are no fun unless you share with everyone! This logic also applies to newsletters and your Netflix login.
YES! Thanks for adding another project to your to-do list so that we can continue to learn. I appreciate you friend. Keep shining!
Love this format!