For years, accessibility has been a buzzword in PR and communications. Agencies, brands, and industry leaders have all made commitments to be more inclusive. Statements are issued, diversity and accessibility are woven into mission statements, and companies declare their commitment to reaching all audiences. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: saying you prioritize accessibility is not the same as actually being accessible.
The reality is that too many PR and communications professionals talk about accessibility while continuing to use tactics, tools, and platforms that exclude people with disabilities.
How can pros stop treating accessibility as an afterthought and start making it a core part of communication strategies?
My guest, Matisse Hamel-Nelis, ADS, CPACC, an award-winning accessible communications and marketing consultant, trainer, professor, and speaker, is with me to discuss this important topic.
Show summary:
In this episode of PR Explored, host Michelle Garrett, a public relations consultant and writer, interviews Matisse Hamel-Nelis, founder and principal of Matisse Nelis Consulting. They discuss the importance of digital accessibility in public relations and communications. Matisse explains her background, her work in teaching, and her PR & Lattes blog and podcast.
Matisse emphasizes the importance of making digital content accessible to everyone, including individuals with disabilities. They discuss practical steps for ensuring content such as videos, PDFs, and social media posts are inclusive.
Matisse shares her journey into the realm of accessible communications and highlights several companies leading by example. The conversation also addresses the growing significance of including accessibility in strategic planning, training, and overall communication efforts.
Matisse encourages starting small and progressing with intention, ensuring that all audiences can fully engage with and benefit from the information shared.
00:00 Welcome to PR Explored
00:20 Meet Matisse Hamel-Nellis
03:39 The Importance of Accessibility in PR
04:18 Defining Accessibility in Communications
06:02 The Market Impact of Accessibility
08:46 Challenges and Solutions in Digital Accessibility
13:51 Learning from Mistakes
16:45 Practical Tips for Accessible Communications
22:21 Avoiding Hashtag Mistakes
23:58 Testing and Engaging for Accessibility
25:33 Importance of Integrated Audio Descriptions
26:00 Camel Case vs Pascal Case
26:49 Brands Leading in Accessibility
29:34 Making Trends Accessible
32:17 The Growing Importance of Captions
34:31 Encouraging Accessibility in Organizations
39:08 Starting Your Accessibility Journey
42:52 Progress Over Perfection
45:04 Final Thoughts and Resources
Show notes:
Matisse Hamel-Nelis site: https://matissenelis.com/
Blog post about today’s topic: https://matissenelis.com/the-problem-when-digital-accessibility-is-just-for-show/
Follow Matisse Hamel-Nelis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matissenelis
PR & Lattes – Podcasts, interviews and insights about modern public relations: https://prandlattes.com/
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Accessibility in PR and Communications
Michelle: [00:00:00] hello everyone and welcome to PR Explored. I am so happy to be back today and, I wanna welcome you to PR Explored, which is a video podcast where we delve into trends and topics related to public relations. I’m your host. I’m Michelle Garrett. I’m a public relations consultant and writer, and Today my guest, Matisse Hamel-Nelis is here and I am so excited to have her with me today. Welcome, Matisse.
Matisse: Hello. Hello. Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited for this conversation.
Michelle: I am just delighted because. And we met online. I don’t even remember, I was trying to remember this morning how exactly we got in touch with each other, but it’s a small PR world online.
And I, we met and I’m just, this is the first time now that we’re really talking, and meeting in person. actually [00:01:00] virtually, but
it’s really nice to have you. So thank you so much for being here.
Matisse: Thank you. And I, think it was, I was fangirling over you and your book, and I reached out and connected and that’s how this all started. So I’ll admit when you get to meet your heroes, it’s great.
Michelle: Oh, that is very kind. That’s so nice of you.
I have noticed your work and, it’s, I want you to tell us a little bit about your work because, I could read your bio, but I would rather have you tell us about it because I think that you’re. What you do is a little bit unique within the PR and communication space, and I, that stands out to me.
So I would love to hear, you talk about you and your work a little bit.
Matisse: For sure. So I am the founder and principal of Matisse Nili Consulting, a PR and communications consulting agency that specializes in digital accessibility. So making sure that your online space and the content and communications [00:02:00] that you put out are, accessible and easy for everyone to access, no matter their disability or abilities, or the ways they interact with the world.
Outside of that, I teach part-time at Durham College, here in Ontario, Canada, where I teach in the PR program as well as in the advertising program, focused on PR and communications, of course, but always throwing in that accessibility piece. And I also run a podcast and blog called PR and Latte.
where it’s a nice community of writers who contribute blogs around different types of concepts in regards to communications, public relations and marketing. And then I host the, blog, the, sorry, the podcast component, with various guests talking about, again, communications, marketing and PR and all facets of it.
So that’s me in a nutshell.
Michelle: You are busy. We have to keep busy and I love the education piece of what we do because I think, we need to continue to try to help [00:03:00] people understand what we do and why it matters. And I think it’s more important than ever. And so I, I really, respect and applaud all of your efforts.
And I put. All the links, into the, the comments so that people can look you up, on your website, LinkedIn, or on the PR and lattes, site as well. awesome. please be sure to follow Matisse and check out all of her work. I know that, she, she really puts a lot of heart and soul into what she does, definitely somebody to, keep on your radar.
to, we are talking about accessibility in PR and communications, which is Matisse’s kind of, of, specialization I guess. And, so we would. We will love to take your questions if you have them as we go. it looks like Nicole is here. Hi Nicole. thanks for joining [00:04:00] us live and again, we are happy to answer your questions.
Matisse, I have a few questions already, just to set the stage, but again, if you, have anything that you’d like us to address, please be sure and, let us know. So I’d like to set the stage a little bit. when we talk about accessibility in PR and communications, how do you define that?
What is, a good definition do you think, for that? Excellent question.
Matisse: Excellent question. So when I talk about accessibility, I’m talking about making sure that everyone, regardless, again, like I said before, of their abilities, disabilities, or how they interact with the world can receive, understand, and engage with the information that we’re sharing.
So it’s about removing barriers, whether they’re physical, in our case, more so digital, in the digital space, or even attitudinal, right? In the context of communications. That means that we’re thinking beyond just the words that we’re using, when we write or how we say things. [00:05:00] And it includes things like adding captions to videos, writing in plain language, adding alternative text to our images when we’re using them, and even considering the colors and fonts that we’re using in our design.
So that people with low vision or cognitive disabilities can engage with the content easily. So when I think about accessibility, I also use the term equity, because it’s not just about doing something extra, it’s just about doing it right. So everyone has that equal and equitable access to that information.
Michelle: Yes. because I think it’s just been such a kind of a second thought for a long time. And of course I think there’s been more of a focus in the last few years, but, times being what they are, sometimes we get away from it. we come in and out and, we’re not, we’re not always really thinking about it.
And, it’s, it’s really important because, I don’t have any statistics, but how many of our, how much, like what’s the share of our audience, for example, that is unable to access our. Content [00:06:00] if we don’t keep these things in mind.
Matisse: Exactly. So globally, over 1.3 billion people identify as having a disability.
And I say identify because they would in a census of some sort, have to say, I have a disability while someone like my dad. Love him and he lets me talk about this. he wears hearing aids and without them you are screaming to get information to him. but he will not identify as having a disability.
Okay. I, for one, wear glasses and without my glasses, it’s very difficult for me to see both far and near. however, I wouldn’t classify that as having disability, although if I lose my, let’s call them assistive technology or my assistive device. I have a disability. Very much currently over 1.3 billion people identify as living with a disability, or that’s one in six of us.
in Canada, where I live alone, 27% of adults identify as having a disability, and that’s only continuing to rise with the aging population. But when we think about the [00:07:00] market share from a, bottom line, what’s the dollars and cents of it all? the disability market represents over $13 trillion in annual disposable income.
When you factor in the friends and family who also make the spending decisions based on accessibility, if, let’s say I ha I have sight loss and I need to buy a car for my kid. I’m the one who’s going to try to engage with the website if the website’s inaccessible. My kid’s not getting the car from your store or from your shop.
Right, which means that the kid then doesn’t get to spend his income if, let’s say he wants to buy something or that sticks with them for when later on they want to buy their own car. As they get older, they might say, oh, I remember when they were inaccessible. I’m not gonna support that because they caused a barrier.
So it’s built on the, we are not gonna support those who aren’t letting everyone be. everyone have access to this information as easily as it is for somebody else. So that can lead up to, again, that number of over $13 trillion of annual disposable income, which nobody wants to leave [00:08:00] that on the table.
Michelle: No, and we’re already, I put Q2 up there ’cause we’re already talking about it. Why it’s important. Yeah. ’cause it impacts a very large, probably more people than. Companies might think it does. Exactly. It’s also, it’s a lot of, money in there that you’re leaving on the table if you are not thinking about it.
and it’s also just important to, I think about, from an empathetic point of view, I always think it’s important to remember that, you don’t wanna leave people out because, without captions or without, just, and it’s, pretty simple. I think we’ll talk about some of that, but I don’t think it’s, the, Bar is that high that we can’t, try to address some of this.
Matisse: Exactly, and as PR professionals, our whole thing is about connection. Communications is connection. Communications is people, and if our message can’t be received or understood by any part of our audience, then we failed in that connection.
That’s [00:09:00] the big thing. And accessibility makes our work more inclusive, more ethical, and quite frankly, more effective because we’re engaging with. Everybody in our audience and not just saying, you can engage, you can’t. which is something that people tend to forget, which when we are being fully inclusive and accessible, we’re also building that trust, right?
If we’re leaving people out, whether intentionally or not, we’re sending the message about who we value. and if we value everyone like we say we do, then we should be as accessible as possible.
Michelle: trust is more important than ever as well. So I feel if brands wanna create trust, this is another way that they can do that.
And, I, you, said something else there and you were also talking about how it’s an appearance, issue as well. You were talking about the. Car buying example. And also, I just think in general, like I don’t have anybody in my, realm who is [00:10:00] necessarily, who has, Any kind of disability, however, it might be an appearance thing, whereas if brand A is, addressing this and brand B is not, and then it’s a choice, between the two, you might tend to go with the one that is a little bit more, aware of this, that this is important.
Matisse: Exactly. And also from a, a perspective of media relations and good versus bad press, you don’t want to get your name out there for having, let’s say an inaccessible website. Beyonce had this happen with her website, Parkland website. Fenty Beauty from Rihanna had the same issue. A bunch of universities and colleges in the states like Harvard, Columbia, all had these issues.
You don’t wanna be associated with that being that brand, right? You wanna be the one that says that we’re inclusive, for everybody. That everybody is welcome. We want everyone to have access to what we have to do and what we offer and actually do it. So walk the talk, if you will. [00:11:00]
Michelle: I, and that’s, I think that, I was reading your blog post of course, before I, before we start talking about having you on.
And, I just thought that there was, that was a really good point, is that, again, you hear a lot of people talk about it, but how many are really, how many companies are really enacting the policies and really, Doing what they say they’re gonna do. So yeah,
Matisse: and the thing is, there’s always this fear of I have to do it perfectly, or I’m not doing it at all because of that fear of the backlash.
The thing is though, is that if at least you try and you’re trying to make that progress, we’re looking for progress over perfection when it comes to accessibility. You will never be 100% accessible and I know that scares some people in hearing that. But it all comes down to the end user. No two end users are the same.
So something, let’s say you have a super user who uses a screen rating software and has been using it for five or 10 years, engages with the website. Your website has checked all the [00:12:00] marks, all the boxes, sorry for the web content accessibility guidelines. You’ve tested it. It’s good to go. This super user comes in and says, yes, this is the greatest thing.
I’ve, I’ve experienced. But then you have another user who is using the same type of screen reader, but has only been using it for three months. They get onto your website. They’re trying to engage with it and maybe they’re finding hurdles or barriers for themselves. And then you get that email saying, Hey, I’m having issues.
Can I get an accessible version of, the about page for example? That’s okay. it’s again, that end user. Experience that comes into play. We always think about accessibility, but we also need to think about usability. They go hand in hand. It’s not just one over the other. You can be a hundred percent accessible, but if it’s not usable in theory now it’s no longer accessible because that individual can’t access.
It. So keeping that in mind and not being afraid of feedback. In a lot of cases, individuals and businesses, when you know their accessibility statement goes out and then they get an email from somebody saying, Hey, [00:13:00] I’m having issues engaging with X, Y, or Z, they panic and they think, oh no, we’ve completely screwed up, versus.
No, this is great feedback. How can we now apply it to ensure that this doesn’t happen again? And what do we need to do? What do we need to change to, to move forward? I always consider the feedback the best part of this, versus the scary part of it, because again, you’re not gonna be able to make it. A hundred percent accessible for a hundred percent of the people.
But knowing where there might be those barriers or those limitations is key. So that okay, now I know what I need to fix to make it accessible for them as well.
Michelle: I think that’s such an important point because I do think that people put off doing anything and until, or unless they’re sure it can be, perfect.
And again, there is really no perfect. rarely.
Matisse: No, I was just gonna say, don’t be afraid to make mistakes. That’s the other thing. When it comes to progress, you’re not going to, mistakes. Yes, we can all be afraid of them. I’m also afraid of [00:14:00] them. But that is what led me to get into this space in communications was a mistake on my second day working for, a.
Institute here in Canada that was focused on the site loss community. It was my second day. I put out a tweet. This was 10 years ago when, Twitter at the time, had the character limit of 140 characters and I put out the hashtag DYK for did, and some sort of stat. And one of my colleagues with site loss called me within 10 minutes.
And, he welcomed me to the team, which I thought was lovely. And then he said, by the chance did you put out the tweet? And I said, I did. Is there a spelling or grammar mistake? Was my thought process? And he goes, no, but screen readers don’t read acronyms the way you think they do. And DY can’t reads as dick.
Oh. I, just thought back myself like, okay, so I’m just gonna pack up my things. Thanks for two great days. Appreciate everybody. [00:15:00] he luckily calmed me down from that, but he taught, I didn’t know this, and that was the day that I realized if I don’t know this about. Accessibility and communicating in an inclusive and accessible way.
What else don’t I know? And that led me down that rabbit hole of learning everything I could about accessible communications. But that’s the thing. We as communicators don’t know what we don’t know, so we’re gonna make mistakes, and that’s okay. It’s learning from those mistakes and asking questions that might feel like, I’m sure others know, but it feels silly asking.
Feel minimal or whatever the case is, there are no questions like that. Ask away. The more you know and the more you feel comfortable asking questions, so you do it the right way, that’s the key thing.
Michelle: I think that’s a great example, and I don’t think everybody knows that, right? you have to keep those things in mind and, but if you happen to, not get it right.
That’s okay. At least you’re trying, it’s better [00:16:00] than just trying to pretend like it’s not an issue and it’s not a, something that you should be working towards. So I think that was, that’s a thanks for sharing that.
It could have been, it could have gone. Way worse, let’s put it that way. It’s
Matisse: gonna been, it’s gonna been way worse. Yes. Yes. So luckily, so day two, I survived day two. I was there for five and a half years in the end. Oh. but that day two shocked me and it completely changed my career path to focus on digital accessibility and communications.
Michelle: Thank goodness. I’ll put the next question up. Now we are, we’re addressing some of these, but We’ll, we will. See if we can add anything to what we, what you’ve said already. So how can we do a better job of ensuring the information is accessible to all of our audiences?
Matisse: That is a fantastic question.
I always recommend first start by slowing down and asking who might be excluded by [00:17:00] this, right? and it doesn’t have to be complicated. You don’t have to go into full, Venn diagrams or charts or anything like that. But you can say, all right, let’s look at the language first. are we using plain language?
Now, plain language is dependent on the audience. If it’s going on social media, you’re looking at having a grade level of grade seven or eight because that audience can engage with everybody and anybody. But let’s say you’re working in a university and you are working on a campaign for your PhD students and professors.
Your plain language will be at a bit of a higher reading level, but still providing that clear and concise information, avoiding jargon and that sort of thing. So when we think of plain language, a lot of peoples tend to think plain language means it’s very, simplified. That’s it. the bare minimum type of content that goes out when in reality, we’re also basing it off of who the audience.
Is if we are putting out PDFs, we’re ensuring that they are PDF UA or PDF [00:18:00] Universal Accessibility compliant. So PDF UA is an ISO standard that looks at the technical side of PDFs. So does it have a tag? Street? Is the tag street. in the proper order. So do we have heading structure, like a heading one, a heading two for your sections and subsections.
Do you have alt text on your images and your PDFs? Is there the right reading order? So if assistive technology goes in, does it read it in the order that if I’m seeing it, it will read it? Or is it going all over the place and not following a specific flow? Your videos, that’s another big thing, right?
Especially on social media. Do they have captions? So captions, there’s two type of captions. There is open captions when they are burned into the video and closed captions when you can turn them on or off. for example, if you’re posting on YouTube, you wanna ensure that your captions are open caption, sorry, closed captions, which is a secondary file where the end user can turn them on or off.
Now, YouTube does allow to, does do its [00:19:00] auto-generated captioning thing. don’t rely on that because it doesn’t put in punctuation. There’s a bunch of spelling mistakes and grammar mistakes and that sort of thing, but you can use it as a starting point to edit that file to make it compliant. And the cool thing about YouTube is when you have a close caption video, so again, the captions can be turned on or off by the end user.
That end user can now make the captions bigger, change the font, change the color, change the style, and even move the captions around the screen to best see their needs. The other thing with videos is we wanna ensure that they are described audio described. There are two types of audio description as well.
The first is post-production described audio, and that’s when you hear that sort of secondary audio voice that goes man walks into room, woman sits down, and then it describes different things in between the dialogue of those on screen. The other one on the other hand is called integrated described audio, and that’s when in pre-production po production and [00:20:00] post-production, you are looking at a storyboard and script to ensure what you’re seeing is what you’re saying, just naturally woven into the script.
So imagine somebody walks into a pottery house and says. Wow. I’m here to meet so and look at, all this incredible pottery that’s around, and the B roll is showing the pottery. So I’m saying what I’m seeing versus, hey, I’m here, at this pottery house. And then the, other voiceover goes, pottery lines, the walls, right?
I can naturally weave it in. And usually when we think about the types of videos we post from an organizational perspective, it’s, in the bottom third we have. Matisse Hamis, president and pr, principal and founder of Matisse Nili Consulting just at the bottom. And I’m just talking over it.
Versus I could have redone that and introduced myself and then gone into what I was gonna say. So again, that integrated described piece, images, making sure they have cap, the alt text [00:21:00] on social media. You wanna make sure that alt text or image description, those terms get used interchangeably. You might notice on so online.
But they are very different. Alt text is a very short, concise, to the point description of your image. While an image description tends to be longer between, you usually have a thousand to 2000 characters to describe what’s happening in your image. but either way, you wanna ensure that those, that alt text or image description, whichever one you choose to go with.
Is also put not just embedded in your photo on social media, but on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, that it’s also posted in your main post, in your main caption at the very end as well. The reason being is that if somebody is using a screen reader. They will hear the image description that’s embedded, and yes, they will hear that secondary copy in the actual caption, but they can skip it.
However, if I am, if I have low vision or a cognitive disability and let’s say with low vision, I am magnifying my screen 12, 14, [00:22:00] 16 times and I’m seeing things letter by letter and I can’t really get the full, image of what’s happening.
Having that image description or alt text in my main caption.
Provides me that opportunity to still read through, to see what this image is about. I won’t hear it, but I can read it. So for screen readers, I can skip that secondary, that repetition. But for those who don’t have screen readers, but still need that extra assistance, you’re providing it that way. And then of course, hashtags, acronyms, don’t, use them.
Try not to, don’t do what I did. wherever possible you write out the word. So in my case, I would’ve written out, did you know, as the hashtag versus just DYK. and that’s what I do now, in your hashtags, use something called Pascal Case. Where in a multi word hashtag you are capitalizing the first letter of every word.
so in something like this, it’ll be the capital S and something, the capital L and and the capital T in this. And this [00:23:00] also avoids, screen readers and the general public not, Misunderstanding what you’re trying to communicate with your hashtags. We saw this, several years ago with Susan Boyle when she had her album coming out, and it’s still considered one of the biggest, social media fails of all time.
the hashtag was Susan’s album party, but the screen readers and just basic individuals who were just looking at it all read it as Sue’s anal bum party. Because that yikes up. Instead, if it had the Pascal case, so capitalizing Susan, the essence of the a album and the PM party, it actually would’ve read a Susan album party.
but because the screen reader in particular is trying to cut it up into the smallest words, we had a faux pa.
Michelle: Yeah. If you dunno, if you’re not thinking about it like you, how you wouldn’t know, right? Yeah, unfortunately.
Matisse: Yeah, things like that can help you [00:24:00] get on your way when it comes to creating accessible content and also test your content, right?
There are tools out there, that are available, but even better yet, engage with people with lived experience, right? bring them on board to your teams and see if they can provide assistance in doing end user testing, because we wanna assume that. The whole one size fits all doesn’t work in accessibility.
so it’s providing options and removing barriers and, remembering that it’s practice not a checklist when we’re going through it. And, if you’re going through and creating your video and you forget that, oh, we didn’t do integrated described audio, for example, okay, so now how do we do post production described audio?
How do we fix this? How do we go about it? But always weaving in that accessibility piece from the beginning and asking those questions is key. So that. When you’re going through, it’s still top of mind versus an afterthought, which then can also become quite costly to fix, to be accessible.
Michelle: That’s, yeah, [00:25:00] that’s a good point because again, it’s like anything I think in, in, in PR is in comms, it’s if people aren’t thinking about it ahead of time, it’s more like cleaning up a mess versus getting ahead of it and just yeah. Going with that throughout your planning process.
but I think a lot of, companies. don’t think about it ahead of time. And then, there they are. it’s good to have a checklist for all these things and, be thinking about them throughout the, the preparation. So
Matisse: especially with videos, the, biggest one is with the audio description because if it’s not woven in, in integrated described, and it’s done in post-production, described, you’ve created this beautiful, wonderful video.
And then you realize you don’t have space in between the dialogue to actually put in the description. So you’re trying to quickly throw in things in between. It just becomes a hassle and so tedious, so, tedious.
Michelle: Yeah. That’s not fun. [00:26:00] what is Camel case? Another name for Pascal case.
Matisse: So Camel Case and Pascal case are similar.
okay. Case, the first word in a multi word hashtag is all lowercase with every subsequent word being capital. having the capital for the first letter versus Pascal case, it’s every word. Having that first capitalized.
Michelle: Because I haven’t heard of Pascal as much as I’ve heard of Camel Case, so that’s why I use them interchangeably.
Matisse: Yeah.
Michelle: Okay. But they’re not really the same.
Matisse: Not really, but not the same.
Michelle: I’m gonna put that in there. just, camel case is two words. I’m gonna put that in the chat in case anybody doesn’t know what we’re talking about. it’s another, is similar to Pasco case. All right. I’m gonna, I’m gonna ask you if you can, do you, are there examples of brands, companies that are doing a good job with accessibility, do you think that you could share?
Matisse: the [00:27:00] big ones that we, see all the time are, the Microsofts, the apples out there, they’re doing. A lot of really good work, particularly Apple, when they put out a commercial or a video. They not only have the, non described version, but they also offer an audio described version for their commercials that you can go onto YouTube and you can find them and they have captions and everything woven in.
if anyone is interested in hearing an incredibly well done video there, I would say, the Sadie video from Apple where it shows Sadie using the different types of assistive. Tech available through Apple, in, in her day, and other individuals with disabilities as well. And just hear how the description is woven in.
That would be post-production described. but you can see how it all comes together. it’s fantastic. I use it as an example for my students as well. other companies and organizations that are doing a really good job. Obviously we have the site loss. and disability organizations and folks like [00:28:00] CNIB Foundation here in Canada, the, Perkins School for the Blind in the States Lighthouse.
So many of those types of organizations that are trying to move the needle forward when it comes to accessibility and communications. Kohl Supermarket in Australia, they are an incredible story. So back, I believe it was 24. Teen, I might be wrong on my dates, drawing a little blank there, but they were actually sued for inaccessible website and content.
and. Now looking fast forward to 2025, they’re considered the gold standard of accessibility in their communications. Oh, they words, they, really went back and took in the, okay, what do we need to do to improve? What do we need to do to fix what we’re doing? ’cause it’s not working. So they ensured that their website was accessible.
They had end user testing go through it. They built it accordingly. Their communications are fully accessible. they’ve really made it. Part of their culture and their ethos [00:29:00] of what they do, not just, Hey, we’re. We, got sued and that, it is what it’s thing. another great organization, and they’re super fun to follow is RNIB, the Royal National Institute for the Blind out of the uk.
if you follow them on, LinkedIn, you’ll see some of their great tips and tricks when it comes to accessible content on their socials. super funny, super clever, and done accessibly. So you can see how you can take today’s trends, and weave them to make them accessible as well. Which is another big thing that folks tend to forget about.
When you know, a trend comes up, they’re like, Ooh, let’s jump on that. Let’s do this. And something like when Wordle was the big thing, the big to do, and we saw it on x. Where businesses and brands were putting the five by six squares of, the gray squares for wordle on their tweets, and then just had the word at the very end, and you’re like, okay, cool.
I get that. But if I’m listening to it, I’m either hearing gray, square, gray, square, gray, [00:30:00] square 30 times, or I’m hearing 30 gray squares, and I’m like, what the heck is this? I can’t even visualize it. But instead, they could have made it an accessible version by making it an image. And then writing the alt text saying, five by, five square squares by six rows or whatever it is, or six gray squares by five rows.
I can’t remember now. with the word at the end that reads whatever. there are ways to be clever. There are ways to be accessible and there are ways to follow trends, but doing it accessibly is the key. So everyone has access to it, but they’re, businesses and organizations are.
Trying to make it a priority, whether because of legislation coming down the pipe or because they know it’s the right thing to do. whatever the reason I’m thoroughly enjoying this, want to be accessible because at the end of the day, the disability community is the only disability, only minority group that anybody can join at any given [00:31:00] time.
And that’s something people forget about, right? We have permanent disability, temporary disability and situational disabilities. So when somebody says, okay, I’m not blind, so I don’t really need to have access to something. Okay, first of all, you don’t know if somebody who’s blind has tried to access your screen, access your website, but also, let’s say that.
You are sitting outside, it’s the summer right now, and the sun is beaming down on your screen and you can’t see, you now have a situational disability. So how are you going to engage with it? Same with captions in a video. And people say, do we really need them? Yes. Yes we do. Because I forgot my headphones and now I’m gonna be on a train in the quiet zone.
’cause that’s the only seat I can find and I need to read what’s being said versus listening to it. So it’s things like that people tend to forget about. but we’re seeing more organizations put effort into being more accessible, and so I’m really excited to see what that future looks like.
And, getting this [00:32:00] question asked again next year. I would love to come back with even more examples of really, great ones that are doing really cool things.
Michelle: that was, I love everything you said there. So I put some of the examples up, but I will pull some more out when I go back to, through the transcript for people to, to look at.
But I wanna point out about the captions because I had seen a story about how. People that have no hearing loss at all are turning on the captions and because they watch shows and people are, have another, have an accent or, and they can’t quite grasp what’s being said. Or, if a lot of people never turn the volume up, on their phone, if they don’t have their, earbuds or whatever their.
AirPods or whatever they use, they might not really watch videos with the volume up. So I think the captions are just very important for a lot of reasons, and I think more and more people are choosing to leave those on, even if they are just [00:33:00] watching a show that they would’ve watched without the captions in the past.
Matisse: It’s true and Gen Z, there was a recent survey that showed that Gen Z preferred to have captions on videos and even watching shows because they’re so used to seeing that on socials where they’re on all the time. Whether it’s, TikTok or Instagram or whatever the heck it is with reels and all that stuff, because they are so used to it, they are more prone to having it on for TV shows and all that, even though they don’t necessarily need it for hearing.
It’s just Follow along. I myself have a DHD, and I find captions so useful in presentations to keep my attention span. So I’m in a presentation and I’ll follow the captions because they’re constantly changing as they’re speaking. So my attention span and my attention gets focused on that while I get to pay attention to the full thing, in its entirety.
Michelle: Yeah, I’m, trying to find the story that I saw that about this, but I just thought it was really interesting too because, it’s, the, quality of [00:34:00] audio is changing because of the way shows are produced. And so again, just even, even if you even. Obviously you should care about making your content accessible to everyone, but even if you are not thinking about that, captions are something to keep in mind because it’s becoming more popular across audiences, I think.
So that’s, a really good point, to, make for companies, to keep in mind. what do you say, what do you think about. Companies that don’t, aren’t really paying attention to this. what, would you say as far as, I mean we’ve, you’ve made a lot of great points as to why it’s really important.
Is there anything else that you would really say to them to, get them to really pay more attention to this?
Matisse: So I try to, a approach that with empathy, but also honesty. That’s the big thing because you don’t wanna say shame on you. How dare you? Although we may be [00:35:00] thinking it. however, what I’ll often say is that if you’re not thinking about accessibility, you’re already behind.
It’s not just about legal compliance or making sure you’re checking a box, but from a business and values perspective, you are potentially excluding a significant portion of your audience, whether it be clients, perspective, employees, or even supporters just by being inaccess. Right when everyone tends to put accessibility and disability together, but it’s not just about disability, it’s about the aging population, busy parents, non-native speakers of the language and people on the go.
When we’re making things more accessible, it makes them better for everyone, not just. That group of dis people with disabilities, that tends to be that connection or that piece that everyone thinks of. When you think of accessibility and if equity is something that is of value for your organization, accessibility has to be part of that conversation because you can’t say you’re equitable if you’re not accessible.
You can’t [00:36:00] say you’re diverse if you’re not accessible, and you can’t say you’re inclusive if you’re not accessible either.
Michelle: And all of those are really important. yeah. Yeah. obviously, you don’t wanna, you don’t want to shame anybody who hasn’t done it. No, to your point. But it’s, it is, it should really be something on, on a, on their radar if they’re not already focused on it for all those reasons.
gonna put up the story about the popul turning captions on. ’cause I just thought it was really interesting. What else? let’s see here. let’s put up, how about another question? whoops. Where am I at? Okay. so what would you like to see happen in the coming years as organizations move toward enhancing accessibility?
And you’ve, you have talked about this a little bit, but [00:37:00]
Matisse: Yeah. I would love to see accessibility become part of the way we define excellence in communications, to be honest. it’s not just something that’s a nice to have or is required, but it’s built into what we do. I wanna see it embedded in education and training.
In RFPs and awards criteria in strategic plans and budgets like that, it is just woven naturally into the culture of communications in what we do from a business perspective, right? I want communicators, to be confident and capable to talk about accessibility the same way that we talk about audience segmentation or crisis response or, social media marketing.
But most of all, the most important thing is I wanna see organizations include people with disabilities in their teams because that lived experience is what really drives innovation. and right now there is that ta, incredible talent pool of individuals with disabilities who are being forgotten about or ignored simply because of the disability, although they could [00:38:00] bring such incredible ideas and nuance and innovation to your teams if given the chance.
Michelle: Yes. I, it’s. It’s just, again, it’s amazing to me that it isn’t on the radar more often, but I feel like, if we see bigger brands, adopting this, then you know, maybe smaller brands will, follow suit. But, it should really be on everyone’s radar and, it does just doesn’t get the attention that, a lot of the other issues should.
I know there’s a lot to pay attention to. Yeah,
Matisse: a lot. A lot. I get it. I get it.
Michelle: So don’t, we don’t, don’t get us wrong on that, but but it should be something that is on the, in the planning and in, in the, strategy, as you move forward. So I think that’s, that’s so important.
I just, I feel like you’re just a wealth of knowledge on this and I’m, really just loving, all, everything that you’re sharing and, I hope that people are [00:39:00] taking away some, good, ideas to help them. this is a question that I just popped into my head. Yeah. If they’re just getting started, are there, maybe there are tools or resources or how should, what would you suggest if an organization is just just dipping their toe and just getting started?
Matisse: Excellent, excellent question. So I would say. First and foremost, ask the questions. Ask the questions. Go on LinkedIn. There are different organizations like the International Association of Accessibility Professionals that host incredible webinars, post incredible, information around accessibility overall, whether it be web documents.
Just accessibility in general and disability. there’s that. Then, the other thing are join groups. So there are accessibility groups on LinkedIn and on Facebook, where you can ask your questions. And on Facebook in particular, they have the search function in groups. So if you wanna ask a question, I mean you’re not [00:40:00] sure if it’s being asked before, you can search it before you ask.
In terms of tools, for PDFs, what I use all the time is the, PDF accessibility checker, PAC 2024. It’s a free download, that you can get from the PDF Web, sorry, the PAC website. just Google. PDF Accessibility Checker 2024 and it’ll show up. it’s free to use on PCs as a Mac user. what I do is I have Parallels, which is a simulator for a Windows operating system, so I can still have it there and do my testing and that test your, it’s an automated test for p.
however, note that just because it passes pack, you still wanna do a manual check because it can say, yes, this is perfect, it’s all tagged, but there’s no structure in your documents. So you wanna make sure that your documents have structure. So going through that tags tree and reading order, like we talked [00:41:00] about before, will be key.
follow people with, lived experience and, accessibility. Advocates like myself on social, we’re always posting and talking about this. We’re tagging people that you should be following. do searches on Google News for what’s happening in the accessibility space. There’s always tons of information and, and insights on what’s happening both locally, nationally, and globally.
So you can kinda get a sense of what’s going on. but the biggest thing, like I said, is ask questions. Ask questions. We’re, not expecting you to know everything all at once at the very beginning when you’re just starting your journey. But being willing to start that journey that is. A massive step forward, and I applaud you for, taking that step and, wanting to do better in your communications.
Michelle: I think again, that’s just, a really good advice because I think people are sometimes afraid, to, look, to appear that they don’t, know what they’re, obviously what they’re asking about. But it’s better to ask than to [00:42:00] be, to hold back and, sit back and, not take any action.
So I always love, questions. to me that is how we learn and grow and improve and if we have to start somewhere. don’t be afraid. And of course, Matisse’s a great resource and she’s outlined a few, other resources here that, would be good, for everyone to follow and, just to learn more about this really important topic.
If anybody has questions, I would love for them to ask. I’m gonna ask you we’re, we’ll probably, wind up here in a few minutes, but, what else Ha haven’t I asked you that you would like to share? Or what else, would you like people to know, about this?
Matisse: Yeah, so I think the big thing, it’s not necessarily something new, but rather something I’ve mentioned before.
don’t consider accessibility about being perf about perfection. It’s all about progress. You are gonna make mistakes, and what matters is that you’re [00:43:00] trying, you’re listening and you’re improving. That’s the big takeaway, right? There’s an oppor so much opportunity in this space, not just to do good, but to do better work.
And as we learn and as we grow and as we ask questions, we’ll get better and better. And when we include more people in those conversations, we benefit. So by including individuals with that lived experience, we’re able to do so much more and create such incredible content moving forward as communicators.
And if you’re feeling overwhelmed, I get that. Been there, done. That happens more often than I’d like to admit. start small. Maybe today you’re gonna say, I’m just going to ensure that all my hashtags, all my multi word hashtags moving forward are using Pascal case, fabulous power of one. And then once you’ve got that nailed down, the next thing I’m gonna make sure that all my images have alt text or an image description burned in and in the caption.
Great. Wonderful. One step at a time, right? That’s the only, and that’s the only way we can do it. We can’t assume [00:44:00] and make everyone do everything all together, all at once when they don’t have that knowledge. So starting with that one and building from it is so important because again, inclusion doesn’t happen all at once, but it does start with intention.
So if you are intentionally trying to do better, that is the key. And now you have a new accessibility bestie in me. So if you have any. You can always reach out on LinkedIn, or, by email or anything, and ask away, and I’m more than happy to answer your questions.
Michelle: No, the intention, point is a great one as well because I think, just obviously you might be, you might’ve been thinking about doing this and you just.
Really, again, didn’t know where to start and feel overwhelmed. But if you just have that intention and there are small steps you can take to just start to, to get into the mode of doing it. I think once it’s in your head and once you’ve started, it’s much easier to pick up momentum, again, as it is with so many things.
So I think this is just another example, [00:45:00] as we all try to, up our game and, do a better job. I think this is a, very, very important, piece of your strategy, moving forward. So yeah, I just, I’m so glad that we had this conversation today, Matisse, and I appreciate you so much being here.
And, I hope everybody will follow Matis. I did put some links up for her website and LinkedIn and, she’s, doing a lot of great work in the space and, I am just pleased, so pleased have. had her here with us today. So thank you so much for being here.
Matisse: Thank you so much for the opportunity.
I really enjoyed this conversation. You were amazing as always.
Michelle: Oh, thank you so much. And I wanna thank everybody who tuned in and we’ll be back, probably in a few weeks with another episode of PR Explored. And, again, thanks so much for being here. Thank you. [00:46:00] Bye.
About the host: Michelle Garrett is a B2B PR consultant, media relations consultant, and author of B2B PR That Gets Results, an Amazon Best Seller. She helps companies create content, earn media coverage, and position themselves as thought leaders in their industry. Michelle’s articles have been featured by Entrepreneur, Content Marketing Institute, Muck Rack, and Ragan’s PR Daily, among others. She’s a frequent speaker on public relations and content. Michelle has been repeatedly ranked among the top ten most influential PR professionals.
Learn more about Michelle’s freelance PR consulting services here. Book a no-obligation call to talk about your needs here. Buy Michelle’s book here.