Recognizing barriers, increasing reach—practical knowledge for accessible social media

Description

This workshop focuses on accessible communication in social media and how content on platforms such as Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, X, and Facebook can be designed to reach more people instead of unintentionally excluding them. Barriers on social media often arise not from malicious intent, but from time pressure, lack of knowledge, or false assumptions. The workshop highlights these barriers and shows concrete ways to avoid them in everyday life. The focus is on practical implementation rather than theoretical rules.

Key messages: Accessibility is not an add-on or a special topic, but a central component of good social media communication. Breaking down barriers increases reach, comprehensibility, and impact. Small changes to text, images, videos, and interaction can make a big difference. Accessible social media does not mean less creativity, but more conscious decisions. Responsibility and reach are not mutually exclusive; they reinforce each other.

Added value for participants? Participants learn to recognize and classify typical barriers on different platforms. They are given concrete, immediately applicable tools for accessible texts, image descriptions, videos, hashtags, and interactions. In practical exercises, they analyze and revise real social media examples and develop a better sense of how content is received by different users. The goal is to leave the workshop with more confidence, clarity, and motivation to actively implement accessible social media. What prior knowledge is required? A basic understanding of social media and initial practical experience with at least one of the platforms mentioned is required. Specific prior knowledge in the area of accessibility is not required. Please bring a computer or tablet.

Speaker

Anne-Mieke Bovelett

Anne-Mieke Bovelett has been working in the field of digital accessibility for many years, supporting agencies and companies in implementing accessible digital communication. Her focus is not on theoretical guidelines, but on real-life usage situations and solutions that work in everyday working life.
A particular focus of her work is accessible communication in social media. She explains how design, text, structure, and platform mechanics create or break down barriers, often without teams being aware of it. In workshops, she translates accessibility requirements into concrete measures that can be implemented immediately. She works at the interface of strategy, content, and technology and is accustomed to working with different target groups and levels of maturity. Her goal is to make accessibility understandable, manageable, and effective without reducing it to checklists or mere compliance.