Social media messages that are posted on behalf of the University of Washington must meet accessibility standards by April 24, 2026, according to a rule on digital accessibility published by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). For details on the requirements, see the following pages from the UW Office of Compliance:
The UW is not responsible for accessibility of the social media platforms themselves, only the content posted to the platforms. There are three primary accessibility issues that content authors need to be aware of:
- Images need alt text, so people who are blind or low vision can access the equivalent communication to that received by sighted users.
- Videos need captions, so people who are unable to hear the audio can access the audio content via text.
- Color contrast needs to meet specific, measurable accessibility requirements.
The specific methods for adding alt text to images and captions to video varies across social media platforms. The following sections provide instructions for the most common social media platforms used at the UW.
NOTE: You can only add alt text to standard Pins or video Pins, and this is only possible with a business account.
TikTok also includes a feature that adds a photosensitive warning to videos if they contain effects that may cause visual sensitivity to others.