Instagram+and+a+moment+for+the+hearing+impaired

**Instagram and a moment for the hearing impaired**
Instagram is a social networking site that allows users to create content quickly and post it to other social media sites right away. It uses a lot of images to tell the stories of the users, therefore it would be a great Site for the hearing impaired, but there are still some issues of accessibility when it comes to the videos included. Since Instagram is under the Facebook umbrella there are many similarities to the accessibility features of Facebook. There is an Alt text feature for videos and images with voice overs on the site for the Hearing impaired. However, as with most Social Media, the control of accessibility really lies with the creators of content.

Education has power and if students are connecting to Social Media and learning new ways of using it they are more engaged learners. A lesson that is a visual diary of a project with video and images that then students add the captions and context for would be one example. It would slow down the users/creators of content to explain the importance of accessibility and also help learners to really delve deeply into the content that they are choosing to post. Personal opinion influences how a photo is viewed, a story is processed and a video is analyzed. Art and its interpretation is always personal. Although all of the content on Instagram may not be classified as Art, it often tells the life story of its users: where they are in the world, what they find fascinating at a given moment in that world. To deprive others of the emotions, connections and moments that are posted is unfair, a word with which students are very familiar. To create a thoughtful description of a photo or create a text for a video allows learners to stop, focus and come to a realization of the most important parts of the media they have posted. It is also interesting to note what the alt text feature of Instagram generates for an image or video and what the learner chose to include. The learner's version is usually richer in content and more personal than what is generated by the program.

The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) is debating whether accessibility is a public or a private issue, when it comes to Social Media. While this debate goes on and the ideas on how to implement sanctions or regulate Social Media Sites is still outstanding, there are ways for people with disabilities to have their voices heard. For example there is a video hotline using American Sign Language, that is available for the hearing impaired, to have a discussion with representatives and to voice their concerns. Someday, this would be a great feature that Instagram users could tap into to create an American Sign Language version of their audio. It is important to impart on the next generation and those that follow, what it means to be a good digital citizen. That what they choose to share and how they share it means something, just as it does today: the more access, the more ideas shared, the stronger the community.

Resources: @http://www.mikemarko.com/advantages-disadvantages-of-instagram/ @http://www.techrepublic.com/article/social-media-and-tech-sites-must-be-accessible-to-everyone/ @https://mediaaccess.org.au/web/social-media/instagram