Accessibility in Social Media: Analyzing Social Inclusion for Older Adults and Low-Literacy Users

• Clarice Mendes e Mendes Federal University of Pará (UFPA) http://orcid.org/0009-0006-8516-307X
• Nicoly da Silva Menezes Federal University of Pará (UFPA) http://orcid.org/0009-0005-0384-8749
• Marcelle Pereira Mota Federal University of Pará (UFPA) http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9226-9020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/waihcws.2024.243976

Abstract

Currently, social media plays an important role in communication and social inclusion. However, access can be limited for people with low literacy and older adults due to accessibility difficulties. This work analyzes how Brazil’s most popular social media - WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok - impact this audience. About 21 design considerations were utilized to achieve this objective, and a qualitative exploratory analysis was conducted to evaluate the accessibility of social media platforms focused on users with low literacy levels and older people. The results indicate areas for improvement to increase accessibility on social media platforms. These findings highlight the need for more inclusive design practices to serve these user groups better.

Keywords: Accessibility, Social Media, Inclusion

References

Alzahrani, R. and Al-Aama, A. (2024). A framework to improve the accessibility of social media account content. Universal Access in the Information Society, pages 1–15.

DataReportal (2024). Digital 2024: Brazil. [link]. Acesso em 4 jul. 2024.

Governo Digital (2023). Guia de boas práticas para acessibilidade digital. [link]. Acesso em: 4 nov. 2024.

IBGE (2022). Pnad contínua: Acesso à internet e à televisão e posse de telefone móvel celular para uso pessoal 2022. [link]. Acesso em: 1 jul. 2024.

Lee, R. T., Surenkok, G., and Zayas, V. (2024). Mitigating the affective and cognitive consequences of social exclusion: an integrative data analysis of seven social disconnection interventions. BMC Public Health, 24(1):1250.

Martínez-Alcalá, C. I., Rosales-Lagarde, A., AlonsoLavernia, M. d. l. , Ramírez-Salvador, J. , Jiménez-Rodríguez, B., Cepeda-Rebollar, R. M., López-Noguerola, J. S., Bautista-Díaz, M. L., and Agis-Juárez, R. A. (2018). Digital inclusion in older adults: A comparison between face-to-face and blended digital literacy workshops. Frontiers in ICT, 5.

Melo, G. L. N., Menezes, N. D. S., Miranda, I. M., Teran, L. A., and Mota, M. P. (2024). Inspecting the accessibility of instant payment systems from the perspective of low literacy people. In Proceedings of the XXII Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems, IHC ’23, New York, NY, USA. Association for Computing Machinery.

Rezende, E. J. C. and Campos, C. F. (2020). Inclusão digital e envelhecimento: uma abordagem centrada no humano e social pelo design. Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios de Diseño y Comunicación, (121).

Teran, L. A., Melo, G. L. N., Silva, I. M. M. d., Salles, R. B. d., Rocha, T. d., and Mota, M. P. (2024). A set of professional tools to support the design and evaluation of real-time payment systems and emergent users. Journal on Interactive Systems, 15(1):790–809.

Teran, L. A. and Mota, M. P. (2024). Design considerations for real-time payment systems and emerging users. In Proceedings of the XXII Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems, IHC ’23, New York, NY, USA. Association for Computing Machinery.