#CamelCaseHashtags - What Are They and Why Are They So Important?

Hiya, my name is Jamie and I'm going to talk to you today about #CamelCase. Now you're probably thinking of a camel and a suitcase, get that out of your head! That is not what we're talking about.

I'm talking about accessibility. So for those who aren't aware of camel case, it's to do with hashtags, you've hashtags all across social media on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok. All these platforms use hashtags to help an individual locate information, find jobs. It also helps them emphasize a message or illustrate key points from their content.

So when you are online, like myself, who, I'm registered blind, so when I'm online, I typically have to navigate the bar either with my really poor eye sight or I have to use my screen reader, now personal preference, I try to use just my eyesight and when I come across hashtags that are not camel case, they're inaccessible. So you're probably thinking how can a hashtag be inaccessible? Well camel case is when you use a capital letter for each new word in your hashtag. So each new word has a capital letter.

So if you think of a camel, it typically has two humps on its back and that's kind of the way camel case is if you think about it. You have a capital letter, you have the gap, you have the next hump, so it's almost like two comes together. The reason why we use camel case is not only does it support people like myself with visual impairment. It's supports people with cognitive disabilities, people with dyslexia, a whole range of neurodivergents and a whole diverse group of people who rely on these accessible hashtags.

As well as that I did talk about my screen reader, my screen reader is a piece of a software that supports me by reading and relaying information for my screen. When hashtags aren't camel case and they are a little bit longer, this sounds like absolute garbage. I can't even explain how the word for it. It's almost like my screen reader has a fit and is shouting out random letters half the letters are not with hashtag so it creates barriers for those of us using screen readers 

So for me, I would love to see platforms standardize hashtags that are camel case. So that means when you're typing in your hashtags, those little drop-downs that appear if you're fortunate enough to see them, those little drops down that appear, you can then hopefully select which ones will  be most relevant and they would be camel case, at the moment, that doesn't happen. Accessibility is an upward battle and we are constantly pushing to try to get more things like this standardized, accessible only should be number one online and until that happens, we have to hold ourselves accountable and begin to take steps to make our content accessible. Otherwise, as I said, you're missing out on clients, candidates, friends, connections, followers. You name it, you are going to potentially be missing out up to 15% of the planet. There's over one billion people living with disability. You don't know their access needs or accessibility requirements.

So, please when you're creating your content think about camel case hashtags. It's one thing that you can do that can make an impact and I'm talking about an inclusion and inclusion perspective. If you think about this even from a non-disabled persons perspective, your hashtags are open to interpretation. So if I did a hashtag and I said #dogslaughter but I didn't have that in camel case. There was no capital letter for each new word that looks like dog slaughter, now nobody wants to be posting about dog slaughter and you can definitely show that those in your newsfeed that read that wrong are probably going to start looking at you funny.

So make your hashtags accessible make them #CamelCase, and if you want to know more, please do follow me as I post about this every week, and I hope to see you creating more accessible content. Thank you.