Some accessibility tips for Twitter I've learned over the last few years that are simple to integrate into Twitter use and can make your content accessible for a wider audience. If we are to be allies this is something to think about. A thread ✍️
Put alt text on your images. This can be enabled in Twitter settings and involves writing a descriptive sentence about the image you have tweeted. Without this, the image you post is not accessible to visually impaired Twitter users. @AltTxtReminder is a good tool to remind you.
Capitalise individual words in hashtags (called Camel Case). For example #AcademicMentalHealth. This is important for screenreaders as it will then read every individual word in the hashtag rather than a muddle of blended words.
Don't do a long string of emojis. Again on screenreaders a string of emojis will be read as 🚩🚩🚩 [red flag] [red flag] [red flag] for each emoji. This gets pretty annoying after the first few. As a rule of thumb, I do a maximum of 5 in a row. 🚩x100000 is more accessible.
Add captions to your videos. There are a range of free captioning apps including Kaptioned, which can be used to add captions to videos to make sure content is accessible to deaf Twitter users, as well as people scrolling on by without sound activated.
Don't use text emojis. Text emojis such as :) will get read as "colon" "bracket" so lose their effect for screenreader users. It's better to use an emoji such as 😊
Check GIFs alt text. There is often default alt text on GIFs on here, but usually the default doesn't actually describe the situation properly. Going in and changing that text to be more descriptive is helpful.
Retweeting accessible content. Hashtags like @/get_altText can help you check if other content has alt text before retweeting. If you still want to retweet that content you can add the description in text on your retweet.
I should add to this that the one person that's taught me the most about accessibility on here is @StephZihms, thank you
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The thing with academia is I can sit here and tell you to set boundaries. To not work weekends for your mental health, because you shouldn't have to, but the culture of overwork means that if you take a step back and look after yourself, or take time to be with your family 1/
or simply, want to enjoy your life outside of the academy, I cannot guarantee you will be "successful" in academia. Because from where I sit, to be successful means to give everything. Your weekends, your health. You are meant to show up and deliver classes during a 2/
pandemic "for the love of it", with disregard for your life because you have no choice. And after all that your dedication and sacrifice might still mean nothing because of the the fact it's not a meritocracy. 3/
The Ghost 👻 - Never available. You have much less contact time than you need, but you get gaslit due to statements like "a good PhD candidate just gets on with stuff". Really you just aren't getting enough guidance.
The Paper Mill 📃- Sees you as nothing more than a way to bolster their tenure bid, and pushes you to the brink to produce papers, pretending that breaking point is for your benefit. Spoiler, it isn't.
So I received this DM today (shared anon with permission, because I think this is something I want to discuss publicly).
Honestly, it doesn't matter of some students "lie" about their mental health, or deaths in the family. We must believe them. 1/
If a student feels the need to lie like this they ARE struggling. Maybe they are working 3 jobs to make ends meet and can't hit deadlines, maybe they are neurodiverse and struggling, maybe their mental health is impacted but from our perspective we just can't see it. 2/
Perhaps more students coming forward and disclosing mental health concerns is because they've always been there but are only now getting the confidence to speak out about it. /3
The "my academic picture was taken in the 90s" academic.
You go to meet them, you've looked up what they look like, you realise their photo on the university website hasn't been updated in 200 years. They know their stuff, and are a solid 7/10.
The "Definitely got your back, what a Belle" academic.
Great mentor, always got your best interests at heart. Probably knee deep in diversity and inclusion initiatives and not getting enough credit for it. Alway makes you go back and read the literature. 11/10.
How can universities support graduate/PhD mental health? Here's some thoughts on what institutions can work towards today 👇#AcademicMentalHealth#AcademicChatter
1 - Acknowledge that the research culture plays a role 🏛️
The onus to improve mental health isn't just on the individual. It's time to acknowledge that the stressors at university impact grad students.
2 - Train PIs 🧑🏫
Promoted to positions of power based on research capabilities PIs often haven't been trained in mental health, like even for 2 hours. Providing basic training can help.
Why did I leave academia? It's complex. It's 100% related to the culture of academia that I felt I couldn't stay. So here's a thread on why, particularly as a woman, with depression, I had to leave, despite having a good track record and designs on being a prof one day. 1/
The precarity of contracts. Honestly, the rolling from one contract to the next was crushing. Not knowing if I'd be jobless in a few months was too much. Combine that with my anxiety, and it was debilitating. I've since got a permanent job in industry. 2/
The culture of overwork. Feeling like I had to be constantly "on" all the time, and if I wasn't it was valuable time I could have been working on a paper to get ahead. Again with my depression (and quite frankly anyone else with or without depression) burnout was not my friend.3/