Today's world is a social one. The success of many organizations is beginning to rely upon managing online reputations, online branding and interactions. How can non-profits use social media to their advantage? What sort of tools are available to ensure the accessibility of a user's experience? This presentation will be your guide to developing strategies and using tools as a way to connect with the disability community.

1. Social MediawithAccessibility in Mind Jillian Fortin Director of Communications & Interactive Media Knowbility, Inc. http://www.knowbility.org

2. A Few Definitions Social Media: a group of Internet-based applications that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content Accessibility: having equal access to web-based information and services for everyone

3. Who Uses Social Media? More than 500 million people actively use Facebook Over 19 million profiles on Twitter, receiving 180 million unique visitors per day Over 2 billion views on Youtube per day More than 75 million users on LinkedIn

4. Long story short, everyone… …including your target audience …including people with disabilities

5. Survey Says… Using 1-2 types of specialized software, users spent: 6 hours/weekon social networks for school or work related activities 12 hours/weekon social networks for non-school or work related activities Source: Preliminary Findings on Social Media Use and Accessibility (joint study between NEADS and Adaptech Research). Link to study here: http://bit.ly/9umej7

6. Survey Says… The most popular social networking sites among people with disabilities include: Facebook Youtube Twitter MySpace Flickr Source: Preliminary Findings on Social Media Use and Accessibility (joint study between NEADS and Adaptech Research). Link to study here: http://bit.ly/9umej7

7. How accessible are these networks, really? The Holy Trinity of Social Media

8. Facebook Accessibility Accessibility Features: Ability for screen reader users to sign up for accounts (CAPTCHA alternative) HTML version of the site Keyboard Shortcuts Dedicated “Accessibility Team”, available for support: http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=accessibility

9. Facebook Accessibility Accessibility Issues Many applications not accessible Chat issues with screen readers Photo and video accessibility depends upon user Screen reader users prefer to use mobile site (http://m.facebook.com or http://touch.facebook.com)

10. Twitter Accessibility AccessibleTwitter.com Screen reader friendly Supports keyboard users Easy to use with Braille Display Clear and easy to use for people with dyslexia and cognitive disorders eReader and Smartphone support …how Twitter should have been!

11. YouTube Accessibility Google's automatic speech recognition technology can translate 51 languages in YouTube videos & create captions Demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTvHIDKLFqc&feature=player_embedded

12. YouTube Accessibility Tools provide “accessible interface” Chris Heilmann’s Easy Youtube: http://icant.co.uk/easy-youtube/ Majestyc Net: http://tube.majestyc.net/ Professor Gary Bishop at University of North Carolina: http://www.cs.unc.edu/~gb/AccessibleYouTube/ (only supported in Firefox)

13. Five Least Accessible Social Networks Digg Classmates.com Disaboom SecondLife InternSHARE.com

14. ensuring YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE reaches everyone Tips and Tools

15. PLAN, PLAN, PLAN! Decide what message you want to communicate Identify brand champions/key players Create a schedule Keep team members accountable http://ducttapemarketing.com

16. Don’t Do Everything Manually Sync accounts as much as you can Plan ahead, schedule messages ahead of time Create a “listening post” to monitor what people are saying about you

17. Content Checklist Videos Do you have a descriptive title? Are your videos captioned? Have you provided a transcript? Have you provided a link to a web page that has more information about the content in the video? Have you tagged your video? (Youtube)

18. Content Checklist Photos Is your album/set/collection title descriptive and relevant? Have you provided a caption that is descriptive? Have you properly tagged your photo? (Flickr) Does your album/set/collection description have a link to a web page that has more information?

19. Content Checklist Podcasts Do you have a title that is descriptive and relevant? Have you provided a transcript? Have you provided a link to a web page that has more information about the podcast? If you are embedding the podcast on your own site, are you using an accessible audio player (Victor Reader Stream) or providing a link to download the audio file?

20. Content Checklist Microblogs (Tweets/Status Updates) Did you use simple language? Did you shorten URLs and provide a short description about what you are linking to? Did you avoid the overuse of abbreviations? Did you avoid using a foreign language without making it obvious first?

21. Additional Tips Blogging Platforms Wordpress, Blogger, Posterous, Squarespace, Tumblr Email Marketing Platforms Campaign Monitor, MailChimp

22. Thank You! Jillian Fortin Director of Communications & Interactive Media Knowbility, Inc. http://knowbility.org twitter.com/knowbility facebook.com/knowbility I’d love to hear from you! jill@knowbility.org