A more connected world: Research into social media accessibility

Each day, millions of social media users scroll through feeds, interact with brands and learn more about the world around them. But for many, that experience isn’t equally accessible.

In 2023, the World Health Organization estimated that around 2.2 billion people worldwide have vision impairment, including blindness, while over 1.5 billion people experience hearing loss. Mary Anne Raymond, Thomas F. Chapman Distinguished Professor of Leadership, and Hillary Smith, assistant director of social media and adjunct marketing lecturer at Clemson, have been investigating the accessibility of popular social media platforms, specifically examining features that aid individuals who are visually or hearing impaired.

Smith first became interested in digital accessibility while earning her master’s degree in marketing at the Wilbur O. and Ann Powers College of Business in 2019. Seeing the applications of both her work with social media and her studies, she approached Raymond about her research idea.

“I realized that while social media is meant to connect people, it can also create barriers,” Smith said. “Social media has become an integral part of life. If accessibility isn’t a priority, a large audience is unintentionally excluded.”

When Smith spoke to Raymond about the possibility of this research opportunity, Raymond was immediately on board. Their study, “An Examination of Digital Accessibility Within Social Media Platforms,” was recently published in the Journal of Advertising Research.

After gathering and analyzing over 1,000 pieces of social media content across multiple social media platforms and across four different product categories, their findings showed that the majority of the social media posts were not accessible to people with hearing and/or visual impairments.

More specifically, Smith and Raymond analyzed images posted on different platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter (X). Many of the images were inaccessible to people with visual impairments who would need to utilize alternative text (description of an image) to help them understand the context of the social media post. Raymond and Smith found that of the 349 social media posts that included images, 115 lacked alternative text and 209 had inaccurate AI-generated alternative text. Only 20 images had accurate alternative text.

Although many social media platforms now offer accessibility tools like alt text, including text-to-speech, video captions, descriptive video language, high color contrast and capitalized hashtags, Smith and Raymond’s research found that these tools are often underutilized, leaving hearing and visually impaired users with a diminished social media experience.

“When social media platforms lack accessibility features, it isolates a large audience,” Raymond explained. “Not only that, but it’s incredibly frustrating for those users to interact with posts. Even processes like shopping through social media platforms become extremely difficult.”

Smith adds, “It’s important for platforms to prioritize accessibility to ensure that all users, regardless of their abilities, can participate fully in the digital space. The more inclusive these platforms are, the more connected our world will become, allowing individuals to engage, learn and share experiences in ways that are meaningful to them.”

To learn more about research at the Powers College of Business, visit our research webpage.