Accessible Posting
How to create accessible posts
This documentation page is an introductory guide for about posting accessibly on Hachyderm. As an introductory guide there are topics and sections that will need to be added and improved upon over time.
If you are looking for the short version of our asks here on Hachyderm, please read “What do we mean when we talk about accessibility”, “what you should know and our asks”, as well as the summary at the end of the document.
If you are looking for the underlying nuance and context to apply them more effectively and and take an active part in maintaining Hachyderm as a safe, active community, please read and reflect on each of the deeper sections.
What do we mean when we talk about accessibility?
Accessibility means that as many people as possible can access your content if they choose to. Accessibility does not mean that you cannot otherwise intentionally gate your content, for example via a content warning. Rather, accessibility refers to the many ways that people typically create unintentional gates around their content.
What you should know and our asks
No one on Hachyderm is expected to be an expert. Everyone on Hachyderm is asked to approach accessibility with a growth mindset and to iterate and change over time.
Whenever you receive a request from a group you are not yet familiar with, or who you do not interact with often enough to have cultural fluency, please take that request as a growth opportunity. This growth can happen with sustainable time and effort on your part.
Our asks
When posting accessibly:
- Include effective alt text for images.
- Note you cannot add alt text after posting by editing a post. This includes both creating new alt text that was neglected or fixing existing alt text. The common work around is to comment to your post with the alt text.
- Use PascalCase or camelCase for your hashtags.
- Learn how to write effective summaries for audio / video content.
- Prioritize audio content with captions and transcripts where available.
- Be aware how often you post paywalled content; not everyone has the same purchasing power.
- Learn how and when to use effective content warnings.
- When writing posts for an international audience, minimize use of slang and metaphor and instead use literal, direct, phrasing that can be easily translated by translation tools.
- When someone makes a mistake regarding any of the above, please either help them if you have the emotional space to do so or move on. Do not shame them or sealion them.
Content warnings in particular are a useful feature that applies to many situations. As a reminder, we request and recommend content warnings as a general rule as opposed to requiring them. (Please see this document’s summary for more information about why this is.)
The remainder of this introductory doc page will supply context and nuance to the above asks. The use of content warnings will come up heavily for the interpretive section.
Interactions on the internet
Breaking down the different ways that we send, receive, and interpret content on the internet can help when building an internal framework for “what is accessible”.
When receiving content on the internet, that content is typically:
- Visual
The text on this page, static or animated images, video - Auditory
Non-visual audio content like podcasts, or audio content with visuals like a video. - Tactile
How we interact with visual content by “clicking here” or otherwise interacting with the content we are receiving. - Economic
Content that requires individual purchase or subscription to access.
When sending content on the internet, the content is typically:
- Visual
Same as the above, but something we are sending rather than receiving. - Auditory
Same as the above, but something we are sending rather than receiving. - Tactile
Same as the above, but something we are sending rather than receiving.
When interpreting content on the internet, we are using:
- Our available senses
- Our neurodiversity
- Our lived experiences, including but not limited to our socialization and culture
- Our moral compasses and ethical alignments
- Our primary language(s), spoken and signed
- And so on.
Generating accessible content is the combinatorics problem of the above. Most commonly, accessibility is implemented by creating a “sensory backup” of the primary delivery of the content. For example, if the content is audio, it will have a (visual) transcript. If the content is visual, it will have descriptive text that can be audibly read. And so on.
The interpretation aspect content is where “sensory backups” alone fall short. If someone is a trauma survivor, having a “sensory backup” of the content does not solve the particular difficulty they are having. If someone is having sensory overwhelm, pivoting to a different sense may solve the particular difficulty they are having but it may also not. To dive into that a little deeper: if the difficulty they are having is that the web page is visually noisy, having a transcript that deeply describes all that visual noise and instead makes it auditory doesn’t necessarily solve the difficulty. In fact, it might not even be desirable.
Mastodon and Hachyderm
For the rest of this article, we will describe the ways that Hachydermians can begin to maximize the accessibility of their posts within the context of Mastodon. We will not describe how the Mastodon software itself can be improved. This is only because that exceeds the scope of this page and our influence, not because it is unimportant. For those of you who have ideas for how Mastodon itself can be more accessible, we recommend making PRs or opening GitHub issues on the Mastodon project repo.
Navigating the complexity
To restate, this an introduction to some of what you will want to learn and internalize in order to create posts that are more accessible. Note that we didn’t say “posts that are accessible”, only “posts that are more accessible”. The reason for this is the scope of humanity is broad, and learning about others is a lifelong journey. Being truly accessible not only with posts, but with software design and just general life, is an end goal you should strive to attain even if it can’t be truly achieved.
Sensory
This first set of “things to consider” when you are creating content is based on the senses we described above that are used when others are receiving the content you are creating.
Visual
This section will be the longest one and will interplay with other sections below. That is because a lot of the content on Mastodon is visual in nature, whether it is plain text, memes, or animated GIFs. Some common examples:
- Images, static and animated
- Videos
- “Fancy Text” and special characters
- Emoji
- Hashtags
The direct asks for each of these:
- Include effective alt text
- Should have a summary, similar to the function of alt text
- Minimize usage of “fancy text” and special characters
- Favor longer, complete emoji names over shorter names
- Use CamelCase
The context
How do people who do not see, or see clearly, the above interact with the content? Typically, via screen readers. Screen readers are designed to not only read plaintext documents, like this page, but also to read any text associated with a visual. For images and video:
- Images: will need to have alt text
- Videos: either a summary description and/or full transcript as appropriate
But what about “fancy text”, emoji, and hashtags? In fact, what do we mean by “fancy text”?
“Fancy text” / special characters actually warrant an article of their own, and Scope has a lovely 2021 article titled How special characters and symbols affect screen reader accessibility. The article shows how different special character “fonts”, typically used to create italics or other visual effects, are read by screen readers for those who use them.
The case is similar for emoji. While in the standard emoji set there is associated text for a screen reader to read, like a thumbs up 👍, when reading the text for a custom emoji the only text available is the name that is supplied between the colons.
Importantly, this is why here on Hachyderm we favor emoji names like “:verified:” rather than “:v:”, even though the latter is shorter. When a screen reader encounters the text “Jayne Cobb :v: :gh:” it will read “Jayne Cobb v g h”. On the other hand when a screen reader encounters “Jayne Cobb :verified: :github:” it will read “Jayne Cobb verified github”. One of these is significantly more accessible than the other.
Hashtags is the last heavily used “type” in the visual section. Many screen readers are aware of and able to read hashtags, but only when they use alternating case (PascalCase, camelCase). For those unfamiliar, that means that you should use the hashtag #SaturdayCaturday not #saturdaycaturday. To show the difference, Belong AU has an excellent 17 second clip showing how screen readers read hashtags.
Audio
Common sources of audio or audiovisual content on social media are:
- Podcasts, recorded messages, and so on.
- Audio video content like YouTube, TikTok, etc.
The asks for these:
- When the content is your own, please have a transcript or similar available.
- When the content is not your own, please favor content that has a transcript for longer content as often as possible.
- In either case, when posting the content include a short summary (similar to the function of alt text).
The context
Due to the sizes of audio files in posts, most audio content, or audiovisual content in the case of video, is not hosted on Hachyderm. Linked content comes from various news pages, podcast pages, Twitch streams, YouTube, TikTok, and so on. Unless you are the streamer, this also means that you don’t have as much control over how the content is displayed or rendered, as you would for embedding a GIF or meme (with the alt text, etc.). For this reason, the biggest ask here is that you summarize audio or video when you post it, so that someone can get the gist of what is posted even if they cannot directly use the content. It also helps to start to be aware of what sources have captions (many video sites offer automated captions) as well as transcriptions. If you would like an example of a podcast that has a transcript, take a look at any of the episode pages for PagerDuty’s Page It to the Limit podcast.
Noise
“Noise” in this sense applies to:
- “Too much” audio and/or visual content
- “Too loud” audio and/or visual content
The asks for these:
- Please call out in your post if your linked content fits either of the above.
The context
For an example of what might be generating audiovisual noise, try navigating the internet without an adblocker or script blocker. Risk of malware aside, there are a lot of audio and/or visual ads placed all over web pages and there are frequently pop-ups, notifications, and cookie consent windows as well.
These situations are usually frustrating when you’re trying to navigate the situation as-is, let alone what happens when you’re trying to convert the page to one particular sense (auditory or visual).
Most of these situations do not apply on the Fediverse directly. They appear when links to other pages and content. To be clear, on Hachyderm we do not ask you to be responsible for the entirety of the internet. That said, if you are posting content that might be “noisy”, it might be worth mentioning in your post that supplies a link.
Interpretive
Interpretive accessibility is about how our minds understand presented information. This is a very broad set of topics as our minds use a lot of data to process information. As an introduction, some common areas to consider for making interpretation more access are listed below.
Almost exclusively, the ask for assisting with accessible interpretation is:
Since the ask is almost always the same, unlike the above section this section will not have a “common examples” and “direct asks” pattern. As an introduction we’re calling out some of the most common barriers to interpretation, offering a suggestion to handle, and reminding everyone that we do not request or require anyone to become experts. Our main ask is that you continue to learn and grow in awareness.
Neurodiverse
Neurodiversity is the umbrella term for “the range of differences in individual brain function and behavioral traits, regarded as part of the normal variation in the human population”. (Oxford Dictionary) A few common attributes that are part of neurodiversity are:
- ADHD
- Dyslexia, Dyscalculia
- Autism / Spectrum
There are more than these. The main underlying factors that define different aspects of neurodiversity are things like verbal / written skills, hyper/hypofocus, sensory interpretation (e.g. overwhelm when there’s too much sensory input), mental visualization, and so on. The Web Content Accessibility Guide article on Digital Accessibility and Neurodiversity has some excellent tips on the software design level that can also help you build your mental model while interacting with others.
Within the context of Mastodon, these will usually come up via links to shared content rather than anything hosted on the platform itself. That means that what you can do is include the relevant information when you are posting a link to other content. This can either be via a description in the post itself or, where relevant, crafting a content warning for the post.
Medical
One of the most common medical conditions that can cause issues with audiovisual content is seizures. Photosensitive seizures can be triggered by strobing, flickering, and similar visual effects. This would only come up if/when a user posted an animated image or video that contained effects similar to these. If you would like to read about this in more depth, please take a look at Mozilla’s Web accessibility for seizures and physical reactions page.
The other two primary medical conditions that come up when interacting with social media are eating disorders and addictions. The former can be triggered by images of food, discussions of weight gain or loss, and so forth. The latter can be triggered by images and discussion around any addictive substance, which includes but is not limited to: food, alcohol, various recreational drugs, and gambling.
We do not ask that Hachydermians be medical experts in order to interact on the platform. The main ask to be aware of situations like these and use content warnings when posting content that might be triggering to these groups.
Traumas and phobias
Trauma is a very broad category, and the nuance of what can trigger trauma varies between individuals. That said, there are some common examples of posting patterns that can be assumed to be generally traumatic:
- If posting about trauma to an individual member of a community, either via a news cycle or personal experience, in all likelihood the trauma for the collective group will be triggered.
- If posting about any sort of violence, it can be assumed to be traumatic even to those who have never experienced that type of violence. This includes various forms of violent trauma humans can inflict on each other as well as animal abuse and abuse to our environment.
- If posting about wealth and poverty, and the topics in-between, it can be assumed that this will trigger the trauma of the many who have had to interact with economic systems from a place of disadvantage.
There are many more traumas than these. There are also common phobias that humans have where the response patterns in the mind and body very directly mirror what happens in a traumatized person that has been triggered. Common categories of phobias include:
- Death
- Disease
- Enclosed spaces
- Heights
We do not ask that Hachydermians be experts in trauma and phobias in order to interact on the platform. We do ask that users use content warnings when discussing heavy topics like the above. This is because, while there is a lot to be gained from discussion, those most impacted will see the same traumatic conversations over and over again. Especially if it’s the Topic Du Jour (or week) or something has happened in a recent news cycle to prompt many simultaneous discussions.
Language accessibility and ease of translation
The main goal here is to ensure that both plain text and text descriptions of media are copy/pasteable so they can be translated into a different language than they were composed in. This allows users that may not be fluent, or fluent enough, in the language the text was written in to use translation tools for assistance.
For clarity: we do not expect any individual to be a hyperpolyglot. We do not expect Hachydermians to post translations of their posts either. What we are asking is for you to be aware of the issue and to be aware if you are posting something that cannot be copy/pasted into a third party tool for translation assistance if someone needs to do so.
Some examples:
- Video content with captions in any language: can another language tool be used to translate the captions and/or does the video host support multiple languages for their captions?
- Video content with transcript: can that transcript be copy/pasted into a translation tool?
- Plain-text post: can the post be copy/pasted into a translation tool?
- Slang: most regional slang doesn’t translate well when using tools. If you’re making a post that you want others to be able to easily translate, minimize the use of slang.
Economic
Within the context of Mastodon, this appears when posts are made that link to paywalled content. The paywall may be a direct purchase for that specific piece of content or the content is hosted by an entity that requires a subscription to access.
From an accessibility and equity mindset: while people should be paid for their work, it is important to remember that not everyone can pay for the access to that work. They may be disadvantaged overall, or may live outside the country or countries that are allowed to pay for access to it.
Another common pattern is for user data to be a type of payment. In this situation, someone must typically supply their email and some demographic information for free (as in currency) access to the content. Similar to the above, this can be an accessibility issue for those who have reason to only share their information cautiously. This is especially in light of increasingly common data breaches, where supplied data can be used to target individuals and groups.
Here on Hachyderm we do not moderate you for posting paywalled content. Within the context of accessibility, we ask that you are aware (and call out) when you do and that you manage what you choose to share with care.
Summary
The length of this particular document should tell you that being accessible requires time and effort. As only an intro guide, it should also tell you that there is a lot happening on our biodiverse sphere.
Diversity is one of the primary reasons we request, not require, use of content warnings in most cases. This is because there are many ways two or more groups may be in a state of genuine conflict without anyone being in the wrong. One quick example could be if someone was posting about weight loss or gain as a response to recovery from a medical issue that triggered someone else’s eating disorder. Another might be someone who needs to scream about how transphobia hurts them, while someone else needs to not be reminded that’s still happening today.
Hachyderm needs to be able to accommodate all of these situations and more. To do so, we try to create space for disparate needs to co-exist. For situations where instance-level policy wouldn’t be beneficial to the community, we ask individuals to create and maintain their personal boundaries in a public space. We also ask everyone to use common keywords and hashtags so that those who are looking to filter that content can do so easily. As always, please report malicious and manipulative individual users and instances to the moderation team.
As you learn and grow you may want to help others as well. This is great! Remember to do so only when you have the emotional space to help with grace. Different people are at different stages in different journeys, which means that the person who you are frustrated with for not understanding one facet of accessibility might be very adept with a facet you know very little of.
If you run into situations where your needs and another’s come into a state of conflict, please approach each other with compassion and respect. Please also remember that you can always walk away from disrespectful conversations for any reason. If the other person does not respect your boundaries and/or the space you are creating for yourself, you can also request moderator intervention by sending us a report.