The document discusses how social media is becoming increasingly important and accessible, but still faces challenges regarding inclusion of people with disabilities. It summarizes SSB Bart Group's expertise in accessibility consulting and testing to help organizations ensure their social media strategies are inclusive. Key points include the growth of mobile social media, integration of social platforms across the web, use of location services, and the importance of educating stakeholders about accessibility best practices.

1. SSB BART Group Presents: Accessible Social Media Eduardo Meza-Etienne, Senior Account Manager Rosemary Musachio, Senior Accessibility Tester Debra Ruh, Chief Marketing Officer www.ssbbartgroup.com

2. Introduction Founded in 1997, SSB BART Group helps companies implement accessibility throughout their Information Communication Technology (ICT) systems - including Web sites, Web applications, software, hardware, and IT services - making them accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities. Our team includes industry leading accessibility experts who have the experience and expertise to provide the guidance necessary to meet organizations Accessibility compliance goals. Our diverse team of engineers, programmers, and consultants, many of whom have disabilities themselves, provide a real edge in identifying needs and issues, and effectively testing and creating products and services with accessibility and usability in mind.

3. Becoming SSB BART Group In 2005, SSB Technologies merged with the BART Group to form SSB BART Group combining the strengths and experience of the two organizations in both the public and private sectors. This strategic partnership secured SSB BART Group as a leader in the IT accessibility marketplace. Early in 2011, SSB BART Group SSB developed a strategic partnership with and acquired the right to use certain portions of TecAccess, LLC. This partnership enhances the SSB service offerings to include diversity programs to support organizations enterprise infrastructure and management services. These services focus on three key areas – recruiting, provisioning and community outreach. Recruiting services provide the guidance and program support to finding qualified individuals with disabilities that can perform jobs within a organization. Provisioning services ensure that people with disabilities can succeed in their jobs. This includes SSB’s historic focus – ensuring that IT systems are accessible to people with disabilities. Community outreach ensures that organizations that develop programs to support the hiring of employees with individuals are recognized by regulatory agencies and by advocacy groups in the community – ensuring the market gives credit where credit is due.

4. Our Business Model SSB Bart Group (SSB) and TecAccess employ a diverse and skilled team of professionals from around the world, many of whom have disabilities, to help organizations address the growing disability market. SSB offers a full suite of accessibility and disability awareness solutions from the top down. We realistically evaluate accessibility, usability, employment, and marketing from the perspective of people with disabilities. Our award-winning consultancy helps clients: meet their immediate and long-term accessibility goals increase their profitability and fiscal efficiency* widen their customer base to include people with disabilities, senior citizens, and the growing “Baby Boomer” population. Rosemary Musachio, TecAccess, SSB Bart Group Team Members

5. Consider This… Right now someone is likely to be “Tweeting” about your company Right now someone is likely to be blogging about your services Right now someone is likely to be talking about us in an online social forum NEWS FLASH!

6. Understanding The Terms What is social media/emerging media? The use of telecommunications to interact with others online through the sharing of words, pictures, video and audio. Begins with a virtual representation of each user (a profile), his/her social links, and a variety of additional personal/professional information Networks become richer with more personal connections and more diverse ways to spread and gather information

7. How Social Media Impacts Everyone Social Media technology and People with Disabilities (PwD) PCs, mobile devices and assistive technology improvements. Increased usage for all, especially PwD Businesses are waking up to the market opportunity Major Accessibility Challenges Opportunities for our community

8. Social Media: 8 yrs old & growing Though online social platforms such as chat rooms or message boards have been around for decades, it’s been only recently that they’ve found mainstream reception. Most came online around 2004 and 2005. Facebook: 750 million users as of August 2011 YouTube: Hundreds of millions users, 2 billion videos watched daily. 24 hours of video uploaded per minute. Twitter: 300 million users as of June 2011 LinkedIn: 100+ million users, mostly business-oriented as of July 2011 Wikipedia: More than 15 million articles

9. Beyond Facebook: What’s new? Mobility The “third screen” increases accessibility to Web Analysts predict that by 2015 that more users will connect to the Internet over mobile devices than on PCs Integration Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms are trickling into other websites, from news outlets to blogs, creating a “network beyond the networks” Location services Social networks are finding ways to play a role in daily life with technologies that help you while on-the-go

10. The Future… Despite some obstacles, PwD are extremely involved More and more involvement due to technology improvements Growing awareness – millions of users / customers Mobility and other barriers to interaction do not preclude inclusion any longer

11. Here comes the Big Boom… This is clearly not your father’s Oldsmobile! More than 60% of Baby Boomers already use social media - and growing 76 million in the Baby Boomer generation, a very social bunch New expectations by the Boomer generation about remaining involved, plugged in

12. How do I begin marketing myself? Social media is about conversations and networking. You need a game plan. Decide what you want to accomplish. Are you looking for a job? Do you want to change careers? What are you passionate about? Do you want to become a Thought Leader? Find the conversations to join. For example, if you’re targeting people in business or specific careers or jobs, then LinkedIn is possibly the best place to start. Good way to proceed is to look for groups: are the active groups on the social site interested in what you can help with? If so, then potentially that is a good place to start.

13. Connectivity – Social Media 101 Connectivity – Is there a magic number of followers? It is quality of quantity. There is no magic number of followers instead who are reaching. Are they people that can help? Maybe they can give you projects or assignments? If you are blogging are people retweeting, liking or commenting on your blogs? The more you can build contacts, the easier it will be to become a Thought Leader. Be sure to showcase your talent in many places.

14. Return of Your Investment Return – There is little to no cost to brand yourself with social media. The biggest investment is your time. Your time is just as important, though, so don’t discount it. Don’t expect to make a ton of money right away, no matter what you are doing. Return can mean more than just dollars in your pocket. Return can be about those people who continue to “return” to see what you are up to because they appreciate what you do. Again, notoriety and identification can be this measure of success.

15. Be a Thought Leader Thought Leader –I am a better writer as a result of my blogging, and social media has really come to show me that there are a lot of other people out there like me, and that I can learn from them. Nobody ever got anywhere without failing once or twice, so don’t get discouraged. You’ll only get better, and that in itself makes the journey worth it. Follow your PASSION. If you are passionate about something blog about it, send articles, retweet, reblog, and become part of the conversation.

16. Looking at Platforms… Let’s take a look at current trends and future projections As we scroll through the next slides let’s have a discussion about how each of these new technologies can impact both your business environment and your quest to hire and communicate with customers with disabilities

17. Mobility 49 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones in May, up 8.1 percent from three months earlier. Led by BlackBerry, Apple, Microsoft and Google’s Android operating systems. Of those users: 32 percent browse the Internet 30 percent use apps 21 percent access social media sites or blogs The majority of usage is data/text, not phone service

18. Integration Facebook now allows websites to integrate it into their own blogs or websites. It works best on sites with frequently updated content. How? “ Like”/“Recommend” button: Lets visitors to your site/blog “like” or recommend an article, video or other content and comment on it Visitor activity is shown on their Facebook page and others’ News Feeds, expanding your distribution network

19. Integration

20. Customized Landing Pages Built within an organization or business’ “Fan” page, a customized landing page is created to promote new offers, draw attention to new products and services, or to simply act as a digital welcome mat

21. Customized Landing Pages Best of all – a portion of Fan Pages can be made accessible by recoding your Facebook tabs Embed accessibility best practices using FBML (Facebook Markup Language)

22. Location-Based Services Location services let people with a mobile device (iPhone, BlackBerry, Android) “check in” at businesses, events and more. Users earn badges and keep a running tab on places they visit, can see who else is nearby, learn about deals and get tips from others who have been there before.

23. Location-Based Services Most popular location-based service is Foursquare. Others include Gowalla and Google Latitude Many businesses have deals for Foursquare users, such as customer loyalty reward opportunities Users can also leave behind “tips” on a business’ venue page created by the community. Tips can include recommendations, reviews, and even accessibility comments

24. Twitter… more than getting glass of milk Allows users to send 140-character updates, share links, get breaking news updates, and more: No account necessary to use for search News breaks on Twitter before going mainstream Influencers from all industries are active on Twitter Longer Tweets with Deck.ly

25. Twitter Accessible Options

26. Great Developments, But… A growing concern exist over the accessibility of such technology Digital Divide and Social Inclusion Platform Developers lack awareness Like PwD, Boomers will be very loyal customers, who wants them? Boomers adding their voice to PwD will be LOUD

27. Accessibility Issues Keyboard only users would experience varying degrees of difficulty, ranging from a lack of links that allow them to jump over main navigation links, to pages or features that were effectively inaccessible to keyboard users. Many graphics lack any alternative text (or ‘tool tips’). Most platforms use an unlabelled ‘CAPTCHA’ (Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart)

28. Accessibility of Social Media Why it’s important? Increasing Popularity Legal Risk Good Business Practice

29. Takeaways Social networking is moving beyond just a dot-com website and entering our lives in new and meaningful ways (whether that’s good or bad is a matter of opinion). Social media is changing through: Mobility Mobile device saturation makes it easier to share information and connect with friends and businesses. Mobility is making social tools on the Web more accessible to everyone Integration Social networks are spreading into news sites and blogs, giving visitors to such sites a richer experience if they are users of Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter Location services Social networks are starting to play a role in helping users interact with organizations and people while on-the-go

30. Education is Key ! PwD must have a VOICE!!! Educate business owners, developers, and technologists about people with disabilities. The moral aspect (inclusion) and enormous business opportunity Although social networking sites by their very nature intend to offer inclusion, they still fall short We must continue to strive for accessibility best practices to be adopted by developers, in new product development, and by users at every level

31. Next Steps Next Steps Schedule some time to speak with an SSB expert in your industry Sign-up for a webinar or online training covering further topics on Social Media and Accessibility Contact the industry expert to setup a free trial of AMP Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Linked-In (debraruh, SSBBARTGROUP) Point of Contact Debra Ruh (804) 749-3565 (o) (804) 986-4500 (c) [email_address] www.ssbbartgroup.com