Creating Accessibility Guidelines: Google Brand Social
Project at a Glance
LaVant partnered with Google Brand Social to build social media accessibility guidelines for Google social channel owners. These guidelines were codified in a very detailed, customized deck that LaVant updated quarterly with the latest changes from social platforms. LaVant also developed and co-facilitated workshop training sessions that gave participants a deep dive into more challenging areas of social media accessibility.
An Iconic Brand with an Undeniable Cultural Footprint
Google is a household name whose continuous innovation influences how society and culture communicates. It is committed to organizing the world’s information and making it universally accessible and useful. As an iconic brand, its social media presence is a powerful medium for connecting billions of users. For the Google Brand Social team, this massive reach carries weight—ensuring that the “town square” of social media is accessible to all.
The challenge
Building Accessibility Guidelines in an Emerging Field
Publishing content for social media presents a unique accessibility hurdle. The field of social media accessibility is relatively nascent, and most platforms were never engineered with universal design as a foundational requirement. The challenge is compounded by a fast-paced innovative environment where platforms continuously launch new features, frequently rendering existing accessibility protocols obsolete. Google Brand Social recognized this challenge and decided to partner with one of the few subject matter experts in the social media accessibility field—LaVant.
LaVant’s Approach
LaVant approached this project by working closely with Brand Social to create customized accessibility rubrics for various types of social media content. The rubrics explained, in plain language, what accessibility assurances each type of post needs, using a three-tiered system. Customized rubrics allowed channel owners to have clear guidance that could be achievable within their unique capacity and constraints.
To fully create the rubrics, LaVant first conducted exhaustive accessibility testing of every feature on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter / X, and LinkedIn. LaVant experts used this data to inform the recommendations given to Google Brand Social, which were applied to the guidelines deck.
The deck LaVant created contained general social media guidelines, detailed tips and tutorials for accessibility workflows, and platform-specific rubrics for six different social media sites. To address the challenge of ever-changing features on platforms, LaVant repeated their accessibility testing every quarter, and in turn, the guidelines deck.
The Impact
Google Brand Social saw the value in creating the social media accessibility guidelines deck and decided to expand the partnership with LaVant twice over. With support from the Brand Social Team, LaVant developed and co-facilitated a companion social media accessibility workshop for channel owners. The companion workshop zoomed into two challenging areas of accessibility: writing alt-text and working with video content. The curriculum included breakout sessions and hands-on exercises. The high level of interactivity was compelling for channel owners, who came to the workshop with open minds and curiosity.
