Diversity and Inclusion on Social Media: where to begin?

With its internal consultancy initiative and talks with NGOs and institutions, Sherlock Communications continues to increase its affirmative actions towards diversity and inclusion. In addition to PR, social networks are another field of focus – a space which has become a “new” dimension of communication and that needs to be made more accessible.

Today, social networks are an extension of any company, business, brand – even people. Online presence is consolidated in the world we live in, but remains restricted for many. Fortunately, with each passing year people at the forefront of accessibility gain more and more visibility on how to make spaces inclusive and plural.

In Brazil, the director and screenwriter Victor Di Marco manages, through his videos, to raise awareness of ableism in society. Nathalia Santos, a blind content creator, provides another very interesting example of how to transform the digital environment into a more inclusive space.

In Argentina, Fernando Galarraga was appointed as Director of the National Agency for Disability (Andis) last year. He is the first blind person to head this entity, which determines benefits and works for the rights of people with disabilities, and thus represents an historic event in the country, while also mobilizing his fellow citizens through Instagram.

In the panorama of Colombia’s social networks, representation is still scant among influencers who speak about disability and the challenges they face as Colombians. A select few influencers speak in their own voice about disability, such as Daniella Alvárez, former Miss Colombia, who lost one of her legs at the beginning of 2020 and whose rehabilitation has become a synonym of hope and strength for Colombians. Meanwhile, others such as Felipe Betancourt Posada, an entrepreneur driven to work towards a more inclusive world for people with disabilities, are striving to make a difference.

Making communication accessible is synonymous with humanization

Expanding diversity and inclusion in social networks goes far beyond the content producer’s own interest in “meeting requirements”: it addresses a human issue. The right to information is basic to everyone’s existence but sometimes a lack of empathy prevents us from seeing other realities which are radically different from what we face every day.

Can you imagine not understanding what is said on the news? Or not being able to see the most liked photo of the year on Instagram? Not understanding that internet meme or joke that everyone is talking about? This is a kind of exclusion, even if it is unintentional. According to the latest IBGE census, about 45.6 million Brazilians have at least one type of disability, corresponding to approximately 23.9% of the population. Yet the Web for All Movement has revealed that less than 1% of active Brazilian websites respect accessibility criteria.

In Argentina, the situation is much the same: around 5 million people in the country have some type of disability, and almost 900,000 people have visual difficulties.

Despite progress in promoting inclusion and diversity policies that allow the implementation of concrete, sustainable and pertinent actions that link people with disabilities, among others, people with visual disabilities in Colombia are still lagging behind despite making up almost 4.1% of the population, according to DANE. For this reason, the National Institute for the Blind (INCI) has been operating without interruption since 1955 to guarantee inclusive education for the visually impaired, providing Braille material to all blind children in the country, advising the education secretariats and adapting educational texts to make them accessible for learning.

And it’s fine if you’re just now realizing this reality. But the important thing is what we do after gaining this knowledge. The next step for a better and more accessible world is to use the tools at our disposal to make sure everyone is able to access and understand the information we are presenting. 

Some strategies are already being adopted on social networks to practice accessibility, but it is worth examining how this is achieved: 

#ImageDescription

The #ImageDescription hashtag has become a widely used resource for image description in posts on Facebook, Instagram and other social networks. What is it for? Well, precisely to help visually impaired people to understand and consume content along with everyone else. In our digital world, news hits the internet in a matter of seconds, so applying this strategy definitely contributes to greater  inclusion in society. It is possible to add the description both in the text of the post and in a “hidden” way, visible only to devices equipped with reading software or applications. The hashtag allows images to be described objectively, so that the visually impaired have access to visual content too.

Objectivity

When describing images using #ImageDescription, it is essential to keep the description as objective as possible. Excluding value judgments, i.e. phrases like “beautiful” and “ugly”, is also important. The idea is to simply describe the details of what can be seen in the photo, helping the visually impaired to mentally picture what is portrayed as accurately as possible. 

Subtitles

Many different strategies can help to promote inclusion. For example, subtitling videos is extremely important since it includes deaf speakers of the language. This is a truly attainable and effective resource for use in all audiovisual content on the internet. In addition to subtitles, Instagram has recently launched a new functionality which allows blind and deaf communities to consume this type of content too. Grasping the importance of expanding content diversity, this functionality lets users publishing videos via Stories – which did not previously allow subtitles – to write what was spoken in a way which is friendly for reading devices. 

Hashtag use

The use of hashtags has become commonplace for almost every type of publication on social networks. To improve their use and make the content more objective, the tip for hashtags containing more than one word is to use capital letters to facilitate the reader’s understanding. For example, instead of using #sherlockcommunications, it is preferable to write #SherlockCommunications. That way, it is easier to distinguish where each word begins, while text reading programs will pronounce each word separately. 

The internet as a whole is far from perfect when it comes to promoting diversity and inclusion. However, over time many social media networks have been working to create new, improved and more inclusive resources. With so many options available in the palm of our hands, it’s up to us to get informed and promote content which embraces and respects the diverse world we live in.