Designing for accessibility: making brands inclusive in print and social media

Accessibility is an essential part of modern design in all forms of media. Ensuring your designs are accessible means making your brand’s message available to everyone, including individuals with disabilities. This approach not only helps create an inclusive brand but also enhances usability and reach, benefiting all audiences.

In this blog, we’ll focus on the importance of accessible design for print and social media, provide an overview of key accessibility principles, and offer practical tips for implementing them in your design projects.

Why accessibility matters in print and social media

Accessible design is about inclusivity, ensuring everyone can engage with your brand’s content, whether it’s a brochure, billboard, or social media post. Individuals with visual impairments, colour blindness, or cognitive disabilities should be able to access your brand’s message with the same ease as everyone else. Brands that prioritise accessibility promote trust and a sense of inclusion with their audience.

While most people associate accessibility laws with digital content, some regulations and industry standards apply to print and social media as well. For example, advertising guidelines in certain industries (like healthcare or government services) often require accessible print materials. Also, social media platforms are increasingly introducing features that support accessibility.

Designing for accessibility expands your audience. Individuals with disabilities make up a significant portion of the population, and by making your materials accessible, you ensure that no one is excluded. Accessibility also tends to improve overall design quality, leading to better engagement and a more intuitive user experience for all.

Key principles of accessibility for print and social media

Several core values guide accessibility in print and social media. Many of them parallel digital accessibility standards.

Perceivable: Content must be designed in a way that people with disabilities can perceive it, whether through vision, touch, or other senses.

Understandable: The information presented must be clear, easy to follow, and not overly complicated.

Operable: For social media, users must be able to interact with content using various devices, such as screen readers or voice commands.

Robust: Print materials should be designed to work with various assistive technologies, such as magnifiers or braille embossers.

Designing for accessibility in print media

Designing for accessibility in print media requires careful consideration of how your materials are perceived and understood by individuals with varying abilities.

Choose High-Contrast Colour Combinations

Low contrast can make printed materials difficult to read for individuals with visual impairments or colour blindness. For example, light grey text on a white background might be hard to distinguish. Instead opt for dark text on light backgrounds or vice versa to ensure readability. Additionally, use high-contrast colours for headlines, body text, and call-to-action buttons, ensuring that key messages stand out.

Use Legible Fonts and Text Sizes

Small fonts and overly stylised typography can be problematic for readers with low vision or cognitive disabilities. To make your print materials more accessible choose simple, clean fonts. Sans-serif fonts like Arial or Helvetica are often easier to read in print. Also ensure adequate text sizes. Body text should typically be 12 points or larger. For headlines and key messages, use even larger fonts to emphasise important content.

Provide Text Alternatives

In print design, images, icons, and infographics often carry important information. However, not everyone can easily interpret these visual elements. To enhance accessibility whenever you use images, include captions or descriptions to ensure the message is clear even if the image isn’t very visible. Consider adding texture or tactile elements for specific audiences. Such as people with low vision, consider using raised or textured elements in your design. For example, tactile printing methods like embossing can help make your printed materials more perceivable.

Maintain Clear Layouts

A cluttered layout can make printed materials difficult to navigate, especially for individuals with cognitive impairments. Organise content logically and ensure that the flow of information is clear and intuitive by using a hierarchy of headings, subheadings, and body text. Avoid cramming too much content into one area and use ample white space. Proper use of white space helps prevent overwhelming the reader and makes the content easier to follow.

Practical tips for accessible social media design

Social media is a critical part of modern branding, and making your content accessible ensures that no audience is left behind. Here’s a few ideas on how to make your social media posts more inclusive.

Write Descriptive Alt Text for Images

Alt text (alternative text) is crucial for making images accessible on social media. It provides a written description of an image for individuals using screen readers.

Be concise but descriptive and summarise the image content without going into unnecessary detail. Focus on context by including details that are relevant to the message of the post. For example, if the image is of a group of employees celebrating, describe the action and atmosphere (e.g., “Team members at a party, raising glasses in celebration”).

Use Closed Captions for Video Content

Video content is an increasingly popular way to engage audiences on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. However, it has to be accessible too. Many people with hearing impairments rely on captions to understand spoken dialogue. Additionally, a large portion of social media users watch videos on mute, so captions benefit everyone. To make your videos more accessible add closed captions whenever you post a video. Include captions that reflect both spoken dialogue and important sounds (e.g., music, laughter). Most social media platforms offer built-in captioning tools, which you can use to quickly add captions.

Design for Colour Blindness

Just as in print design, colour blindness is an important consideration for social media posts. Since social media is heavily visual, it’s essential to avoid using colour as the only visual cue. Use patterns, textures, or labels to distinguish between different elements or sections of your design. Make sure your colour choices have sufficient contrast by using accessible colour palettes. Tools like Adobe Colour’s colour blindness simulator can help you ensure your designs work for a range of visual abilities.

Make Text in Images Large and Clear

Social media posts often contain text superimposed on images. To ensure that text is accessible use legible fonts, avoiding overly decorative fonts that can be hard to read at small sizes. Opt for clean, simple typefaces. Since social media images can be viewed on small screens, use large font sizes to ensure text remains readable on smartphones.

Hashtag Etiquette

Hashtags are essential for social media engagement but can be difficult to read for screen readers and users with cognitive impairments. Write hashtags with the first letter of each word capitalised (e.g., #AccessibleDesign instead of #accessibledesign) which is also known as camel case. This makes it easier for screen readers to interpret them and for users to read them more quickly.

Enhancing Your Brand’s Reach with Accessible Print and Social Media Design

When you design for accessibility, you not only make your brand more inclusive, but you also enhance the overall user experience for all of your audience members. Accessible print and social media design expand your brand’s reach, improve engagement, and ensure that no one is excluded from your message.

Whether you’re creating a print brochure, a billboard, or a social media post, keeping accessibility at the forefront of your design strategy is essential. Thoughtful accessibility considerations for colour contrast and font choices in print media to alt text and captions in social media, will help make your brand stronger, more inclusive, and better set to connect with diverse audiences.