Imagine opening a promotional email built as one large image on a device that has images turned off. Most of us have received emails with all the images broken or not rendering, so this challenge is very relatable. You see a subject line, maybe a blank box in the email body, and not much else. For recipients who rely on screen readers or have images turned off, these emails deliver a bad user experience, or really no experience whatsoever.
This is what email accessibility best practices are designed to prevent. The goal is to make sure as many recipients as possible can read, understand, and respond to your emails, regardless of how they access them. This is not an edge case concern either. Various industry studies suggest that 45% or more of email recipients have images blocked or turned off by default. Add in the percentage of people with varying degrees of visual impairment and you’re easily looking at over half of recipients who may not be able to easily view email graphic imagery.
There are detailed guidelines, specialized testing tools, and best practices you should consider implementing in your email program. But getting started doesn’t require mastering every element of email accessibility. Here are three basic steps to make your next campaign more accessible.
1. Don’t Let Images Carry the Whole Message
Images are an important part of email design, and they can create visual interest and lead viewers to the most important content aspects of the email. However, relying entirely or too heavily on images can lead to lower engagement from certain segments of your recipient list. For recipients who rely on screen readers, images may not be readable at all, leading to recipients not even being able to access your messaging. As mentioned above, a large segment of your recipient list may simply have images blocked or turned off, meaning they miss out on all of that content if you don’t use text properly.
To address this issue, make sure key information (the offer, the main message, and the call to action) is represented in the text content. This doesn’t mean you have to exclude images, but be sure to add alt text to your images. Alt text is a short written description attached to each image. It’s what a screen reader will read aloud to interpret the image and what will show up in the email if images are blocked.
2. Make Your Text Easy to Read
An email can be made up entirely of text and still be hard to read. Light gray text on a white background, tiny font sizes, and long unbroken paragraphs all create barriers for many recipients.
Start with contrast. Your text should stand out clearly from its background, and there are free online contrast checkers that can tell you whether your color combinations measure up.
Use a font size that’s comfortable for most recipients to read on a phone without zooming in. Think about your audience with this one. If you are focused on an older age demographic, you may want to default to a larger font than if you’re marketing to Gen Z.
Break your content into short paragraphs and use headings to give the email a clear structure. Screen reader users often move through content by headings, so a well-organized email is easier to navigate.
Dark mode adds another wrinkle. Many people now use dark mode on their phones and computers, and email clients don’t all handle it the same way. Some leave your email exactly as designed, while others partially or fully invert its colors. That can lead to dark text that blends into a darkened background, or a logo with a transparent background that seems to vanish. Many email platforms let you preview a campaign in dark mode, so it’s worth taking a look before you send to make sure your text and images still hold up.
3. Write Links and Buttons That Make Sense on Their Own
Many screen reader users navigate an email by jumping from link to link. When that happens, they often hear the link text without the sentences around it. A string of links that all say “click here” or “learn more” doesn’t give them much to work with.
Make your link and button text describe what happens next. “Shop the fall collection” or “Download the full report” tells recipients exactly where they’re going. It’s a small change that also tends to make calls to action clearer for every reader.
Size and spacing matter too. Buttons and links that are too small or packed too closely together can be hard to tap or click on, especially for recipients with limited dexterity. Give them enough room that nobody has to aim carefully to hit the right one.
Email accessibility doesn’t call for a separate process or a special version of your emails. It comes down to choices made every time a campaign is built: what goes in an image versus live text, how the copy is laid out, and what a button actually says. Make those choices with every recipient in mind, and your emails become easier to use for everyone on your list.
To learn more about email compliance, email deployment, and other industry insights, check out our full blog here.
