Color, Emojis, Emoticons, and Hashtags

• Use high-contrast colors whenever possible.
• Avoid low-contrast colors on white or light-colored backgrounds (like yellow text on a white background, or white text on a light blue background).
• Be mindful when choosing certain colors, like red, green, and blue, that might be perceived differently by readers with color blindness.

Use WebAIM’s Contrast Checker to check any colors you choose within your documents to make sure there is enough contrast between the text and background.

Did you know? Union College’s Office of Communications provides an official list of Union colors in its Style Guide, including great contrast options.

Emojis can be a fun and easy way to communicate, but be mindful of not overusing them, or relying on them as the only method of conveying meaning. Add emojis to the end of a message instead of in-between words, and don’t use an emoji to replace words.

Emoticons, unlike emojis, are made up of punctuation and keyboard characters. They lose their meaning when read with assistive technology, so it’s best to avoid using emoticons.

Example:

• Emoticon smiley face: :-)
• Emoji smiley face:

The emoji is a more accessible way to add fun communication to your text.

An easy way to make your social media hashtag accessible? #CapitalizeEachWord in a multi-word hashtag. Doing so enables screen readers to identify each word and pronounce the hashtag correctly.