There’s a difference between your username/handle and your display name. Most (not all) of the time your username is unchangeable while you’re able to update your display name at will (and many people tend to do this frequently). I think it’s important to point out how some popular display name trends can make your social media profile less inclusive (and ways to make your social media profile more inclusive).
Special and unicode characters
First and foremost, let’s talk about characters that look like something but aren’t actually programmatically that thing. For example, a popular hub for easily making text look ᵗᶦⁿʸ or 𝔣𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔶 or ꙅbɿɒwʞɔɒd is LingoJam. I’m a big fan of LingoJam, but it’s important to know when and where to use these characters. For example, if you’re in a private message with someone (or someones) you know doesn’t require assistive technology, you could have an entire conversation using LingoJame characters. But if you have a front-facing profile open to anyone, making your display name LingoJam characters (eg, 𝕒𝟙𝟙𝕪_𝕔𝕒𝕥) is a good way to negate inclusiveness.
The reason being, despite how they may look, these aren’t actually letters but Unicode characters. So, what is a Unicode character?
Unicode is an international character encoding standard that provides a unique number for every character across languages and scripts, making almost all characters accessible across platforms, programs, and devices.
Twilio
The Unicode system is vital for things like translations and ensuring computers can programmatically identify things like accent marks (é), mathematical figures (¼), identifying character widths (such as the web standard UTF-8 (Unicode Transformation Format). Each and every Unicode character has a unique, programmatic value.
So what does this all mean? Well, it means even though 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓵𝓸𝓸𝓴𝓼 𝓵𝓲𝓴𝓮 𝓔𝓷𝓰𝓵𝓲𝓼𝓱 𝓽𝓮𝔁𝓽, it actually isn’t. And AI translates Unicode as it is programmatically determined (if at all). So more often than not, if your display name is using special Unicode characters, a screen reader will often read nothing at all, Greek symbols, or even a mathematic sequence. There are some Unicode characters that are identified at the letter it’s meant to look like or represent (ｓｕｃｈ ａｓ ｔｈｅｓｅ ｃｈａｒａｃｔｅｒｓ). So while making your username Unicode may look cute, by doing this you’re likely excluding some users from identifying you at all (or, in cases of framed characters like 【t】【h】【e】【s】【e】which get read as “blanket lens bracket black lens bracket open t close” for every single letter, you could just be downright annoying).
Additionally, some users find obscure characters difficult to read. Remember, cursive stopped being mandatory in classrooms in 2005, so many users may struggle to read your 🎀 𝓈𝓊𝓅𝑒𝓇 𝒸𝓊𝓉𝑒 𝒹𝒾𝓈𝓅𝓁𝒶𝓎 𝓃𝒶𝓂𝑒 🎀, even if they don’t require the aid of assistive technology.
Emojis and emoticons
There’s nothing like a huge array of emojis to really sell home what your profile represents. While emojis ARE generally identified correctly by screen readers, it is important to keep them in mind. One to three emojis at the end of your display name (My Display Name 🏳️🌈💗🐈) is reasonable, but when you try turning your display name into a huge array of emojis which a screen reader will have to list off individually every time becomes extremely excessive (My Display Name 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🌎🐈🐈🐕🐕💖💋⚾💻). Just be considerate when deciding on your display name emoji array.
Emoticons are also a popular addition to display names and come with the same downfalls as we previously discussed — they’re simply an array of Unicode characters mashed together to look like something that isn’t true to their programmatic value. I’m a big emoticon user, far more than emojis. But I’ve had to practice not using my little faces (ಠ_ಠ or ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ for example) in my Tweets because I know they’re a hindrance for screen reader users. While some Unicode combinations like :) are identified and translated correctly by some screen readers (“smiley face”), I try not to roll the dice too much. I’d rather be confident knowing anyone could read my Tweets or display name.
Consistency in a display name
There’s nothing wrong with changing your display name whenever you see fit; however, you’re also taking a risk of people not knowing who you are. And this affects everyone, not just people who have disabilities.
This happens all the time. All of a sudden, someone random shows up on my Tweet home stream who I don’t recognize and only after doing a deep-dive of their profile do I realize who they are. I don’t memorize people’s handles, so my identifiers are always profile pictures and display names. So when one or both of these things change, this person becomes a stranger to me.
I encourage keeping something in your display name consistent so you still have a unique identifier. For example, “Bob | Collector of Antiquities” can become “Bob | Abortion is Healthcare” and then “Bob | Live long and prosper.” Bob may have gone from describing a job title to supporting a cause to making a pop-culture reference but his followers knew one thing: It was Bob all along. And that kind of consistency can retain your audience by ensuring they know who they’re following. This is especially important if you also promote your business on your social media profiles.
In conclusion…
Ultimately, the goal of social media is to garner a large audience. So ensuring you’re initiating inclusive practices is a must so you don’t unintentionally exclude a large audience of people. Most of us take for granted so many things, like not having to think about whether or not ⓕⓐⓝⓒⓨ ⓣⓔⓧⓣ can be read correctly by a screen reader. But I like to think that once one is made aware that those things we take for granted can be a huge hurdle for someone, we start taking steps to resolve it. I hope these few tips help you take steps to make your social media profile a little more inclusive.