Social media accessibility: What it means and how to make your content more inclusive

If you’re a business owner creating your own social media content — whether in Canva, on Instagram directly, or through a scheduler — accessibility might not be something that’s on your radar. But it should be.

Because if your audience can’t access or understand your content, they’re not going to engage with it.

Making your content accessible on social media means designing for clarity, inclusivity, and ease — so more people can connect with what you’re saying, regardless of how they consume content.

That includes:

• People using screen readers

• People with visual impairments or colour blindness

• People with dyslexia or cognitive differences

• People scrolling quickly with the sound off in a noisy room

• People dealing with low energy or overwhelm (which, let’s face it, is most of us some days)

In short: accessible social media content helps more people engage with your brand.

What does accessible social media content actually look like?

Here are a few examples of accessible content practices:

• Adding captions to your Reels and videos

• Using fonts that are clear and legible (and avoiding script for body text)

• Writing alt text or image descriptions for visual posts

• Making sure your text and background have enough contrast

• Using emojis sparingly and never at the start of a caption

• Avoiding copy-and-paste bold or italic fonts that don’t work with screen readers

You don’t need to be a tech expert or trained designer to do this — just having awareness and checking your content before posting makes a huge difference.

Why accessibility on social media matters for small and growing businesses

If you're managing your own content, chances are you’re already juggling strategy, branding, messaging and consistency — accessibility might feel like just another thing to think about.

But here’s the thing – accessible content is effective content.

It removes friction, improves clarity, and helps your message actually land.

You don’t need to overhaul your entire brand overnight. Even a quick font switch or adding captions can have a big impact. Small changes to your font choices, layout, or how you caption a Reel can instantly make your content easier to understand and engage with.

It also shows your audience that you care — not just about how things look, but about how they feel to interact with.

Common social media accessibility mistakes to avoid

These are issues I see all the time in DIY content:

• Text placed over busy backgrounds with no contrast

• Script fonts used for whole sentences

• Stylised bold fonts copied from font generators

• Video Stories posted with no captions at all

• Emojis used mid-sentence or to replace actual words

It’s not that people don’t care — they just don’t know. And that’s why I talk about it.

This isn’t about perfection — it’s about clarity

You want people to stop scrolling. To understand what you’re offering. To feel like your content is for them.

Accessibility helps with all of that.

And once you start to think about it, it becomes a natural part of your content process — not something extra to worry about.

Want to make your content more accessible?

I’ll be sharing practical tips all month on how to create content that’s clear, inclusive and actually gets read.

Or if you’d prefer 1:1 help reviewing your content, I offer content reviews that look at strategy, clarity and accessibility together.

You can always message me if you’d like support reviewing your content — accessibility included.