15 Ways to Make Emails Accessible

Accessibility is important in emails. Read on for 15 Ways to Make Emails Accessible

Email continues to be the most common communication method with 4.48 billion email users globally. It is no wonder why businesses keep investing in email marketing.

Despite this, many businesses do not pay enough attention to ensure that their emails are accessible to people with various disabilities such as vision impairments, dyslexia, cognitive impairments, and hearing issues. A study by Email Markup Consortium (EMC) and Parcel.io has revealed that 99.9% of the researched over 350000 emails had critical or serious accessibility issues.

What are effective ways that will help you to make your emails accessible to people with special needs? How to significantly improve your email deliverability, reach wider audiences, and generate more leads and revenue?

What Is Email Accessibility?

Email accessibility involves creating emails in a way that everyone including people with different types of disability can easily read and engage with them. It includes optimizing emails for people who rely on screen readers or other assistive technology to access web content.

To better grasp the importance of email accessibility let’s go through some statistics:

• The World Health Organization has estimated that 1.3 billion people worldwide live with some form of disability.
• About 5-10% of the world’s population suffers from dyslexia.
• Around 14% of U.S. adults have a cognitive disability such as difficulty in making decisions, remembering, or concentrating.
• Over 2 billion people worldwide have some form of visual impairment.

 So, if you don’t want to miss out on a significant amount of email subscribers, you must put effort into creating accessible and inclusive emails.

How to Create Accessible Emails

Overall, email accessibility rules are based on the acknowledged web accessibility guidelines.

Below, we have outlined several helpful tips to help you craft your desired accessible emails.

1. Choose an Accessible Template

Start by choosing an email template that is easy for readers with disabilities to access, to avoid overloading them. Emails with many columns, images, animations, and other elements may be distracting and annoying for people with disabilities.

It is best to use templates with one or two columns as they are easily readable by different devices.

Additionally, avoid templates with tables as they can confuse readers who rely on screen readers and other assistive technology.

2. Be Clear With the Subject Line

Your email subject line is its title and aims to get the attention of the readers instantly. Keep it clear and concise.

Avoid using All caps in your subject line as reading them can be a challenge for people with low vision. Instead, write your subject line in sentence case. If you need to include an abbreviation of an organization, ensure that the rest of the text is in sentence case.

Additionally, limit the use of punctuation to only when it is unavoidable and has the potential to change the meaning of the text if skipped.

Avoid using brackets, and use colons instead to enhance the flow of the screen reader’s speech.

3. Provide Good Color Contrast

Pay attention to color contrast: keep it high. It ensures optimal readability for people with color vision deficiency, or any other form of vision impairment. According to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), a contrast ratio of 4.5:1 is required.

Try using light text on dark backgrounds, or vice versa.

4. Don’t Use Color Alone to Convey Meaning

Yes, using the right colors and high color contrast is key but avoid using only color to convey the meaning of your email. Add some secondary attributes such as italics, bold, outline, etc.

 You can also label key messages, such as CTAs and buttons, to make it easier for color-blind people to identify which actions to take.

 Additionally, you can add shapes, icons, or hover effects.

5. Add Alt Text For Images

Remember to add alt (alternative) text to any image included in the email. Alt text is a short description of an image for those who cannot see the picture.

In cases, when the email provider doesn’t allow adding alt text, add the description in the body. If there is text on the image, then you also need to add it to the alt text or the email body.

6. Write in Simple Language

Your email should be in simple and clear language so everyone can easily understand it.

Avoid using technical jargon or uncommon terminology.

It is better not to use abbreviations. However, if they are necessary, provide a brief explanation for each.

7. Use Legible Fonts

Fonts matter for email accessibility. When creating your emails, choose simple and common fonts with a font size larger than 12pt.

It is recommended to use san serif fonts as they are the most commonly used ones throughout the internet with 90% of users reading content in this font.

8. Write Descriptive Link Text

Make sure to provide descriptive link text that gives accurate and clear information about the link. Avoid using phrases such as “visit the page”, “read more”, etc.

 Add a link title to help people learn more about the link by hovering over it.

9. Structure Your Email Content

To make the email more accessible to screen readers, separate the information into short paragraphs. For longer content, you can apply headings.

 It is recommended to use bullets or numbers for highlighting list items.

10. Add Semantic Elements

Semantic elements are HTML elements that give clear information about what they mean. Including these elements in your email content allows people who rely on screen readers to grasp the information by scanning the headers.

Tags like <p> and <h> are commonly used and are supported by every email provider. So, don’t skip this step to make your emails accessible.

11. Align Text to The Left

It is important to align email content to the left rather than justified or centered.

Why? Visual clues like the beginning of a new line help people to understand where they are on a screen. Aligning the text to the left will help you improve the readability of your text making it more accessible and inclusive.

12. Do not Overuse Emojis

Emojis are a simple, creative, and fun way of email communication. It’s important to use them sparingly and not rely on them too heavily for delivering your message. Avoid putting emojis between words or instead of a word. Instead, place them at the end of your message.

Also, avoid using emoticons that are made up of keyboard characters and punctuation. Screen readers and other assistive technology can not understand them.

13. Make Sure Your Attachments And Documents Are Accessible

Before attaching a document to your email, check its compatibility with different devices and programs. Also, you can test the attachment on various browsers. You may need to remediate your documents before attaching them to the email.

Consider accessibility best practices when creating each document, including using headings and providing alternative text for images and graphs in the attached document.

14. Add Captions to Videos and Transcripts to Audio

 When attaching a video or audio file to an email, include precise captions for videos and transcripts for audio content.

Also, ensure that media player controls, like play and stop, are accessible with a keyboard.

15. Create the Signature with Accessibility in Mind

Finally, you need to provide an accessible signature for your email.

When including signatures, use real text for your name and contact details to ensure better accessibility.

It’s okay to include a logo, just remember to provide alt text for the image.

Closing Words

Improving email accessibility goes beyond compliance; it’s about reaching a wider audience and ensuring everyone can engage with your content effortlessly.

By applying the 15 ways we’ve outlined in the article, you create a more inclusive and effective email experience for everyone.