This week Media Access Australia (MAA) has released the report, Sociability : social media for people with a disability which aims to”provide an insight into how people with disabilities can best use popular social media tools.”
The objectives of the report include:
“• To help consumers with disabilities participate online
• To learn which social media applications are accessible
• To support consumers with disabilities in performing particular tasks
• To support the use of social media with assistive technologies and mobile devices
Here are some of the key takeaways as quoted in the report:
-Despite the benefits, all of the popular social media tools remain inaccessible to some degree. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, blogging websites and the emerging Google+ all feature limited accessibly, denying many consumers with disabilities the opportunity to participate in social media.
-Twitter was rated as the worst website among the popular social media tools when assessed against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. Issues include inconsistent layout, lack of keyboard navigation options and font size issues. As a result, an alternative Web portal to Twitter was created independently to address the issues called Easy Chirp.
-The Windows and Mac OS X operating systems commonly found on PCs and Macs contain a number of accessibility features which can help consumers with disabilities access social media. In addition, mobile devices that run iOS such as the Apple iPhone and iPad also contain a number of accessibility features and accessible social media specific apps.
Please download the entire report there are sections on all the main social platforms that detail the key accessibility issues but also how to get around them –
There are so many gems of information it is well worth a read for those with a disability and for those working in the online space.