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A framework to improve the accessibility of social media account content

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Abstract

Nowadays, access to social media platforms is a necessity and no longer a luxury, as organizations and governments use them as the primary method to deliver important information. However, it is unfortunate that the number of people with disabilities is increasing with time, while they are still unable to access social media content. According to the World Health Organization, more than one billion patients have some disability, representing 15% of the world’s population (World Health Organization: World Report on Disability. https://www.who.int/teams/noncommunicable-diseases/sensory-functions-disability-and-rehabilitation/world-report-on-disability. (2011) Accessed 26 Mar 2021). Also, according to our research, not much effort is being made to develop solutions for accessibility problems on social media platforms. Therefore, this article aims to provide a framework to produce accessible accounts on social media platforms for people with hearing and visual disabilities. The proposed framework, which we named social media accessibility framework (SMAF), includes guidelines for account owners and a measuring method to assess the accessibility of their accounts. An initial framework was proposed based on the collective review of the literature in the field. The framework was then evaluated and tested using X (formerly Twitter), with the help of a sample of volunteers with hearing disabilities, visual disabilities and no disabilities. The framework was later adjusted based on the evaluation results, and the final version was produced. The results showed a clear improvement in the accessibility of tweets when the guidelines were followed during the creation of the tweets. SMAF could also be applied to different social media platforms.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Science Department, Faculty of Computing and Information Technology, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

    Rana Khalid Alzahrani & Arwa Yousuf Al-Aama

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  1. Rana Khalid Alzahrani
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  2. Arwa Yousuf Al-Aama
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Contributions

RKA and AYA contributed to conceptualization, formal analysis, and investigation; RKA done data collection, methodology, and writing—original draft preparation; AYA helped in writing—review and editing and supervision.

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Correspondence to Rana Khalid Alzahrani.

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Alzahrani, R.K., Al-Aama, A.Y. A framework to improve the accessibility of social media account content. Univ Access Inf Soc 24, 705–719 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-024-01093-3

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