Email Accessibility

Email accessibility is designing emails to ensure inclusivity, allowing all recipients to interact with these messages. It enables all subscribers, including individuals with disabilities, to access and engage with emails seamlessly.

In this article, we’ll uncover the importance of email accessibility and review the types of disabilities that might impact it. We’ll also provide the best practices to make emails accessible to everyone.

Why is email accessibility important?

Email accessibility is essential for ensuring that everyone can read and interact with email campaigns smoothly. Building such emails allows you to improve user experience, increase audience reach, and boost engagement. When creating accessible emails, you can expand your target audience and develop a company that complies with accessibility laws.

By prioritizing accessibility and caring about inclusivity, you show your commitment to your customers. This way, you can establish a positive brand image and encourage customer loyalty. Social responsibility also contributes to word-of-mouth promotion and a positive brand reputation.

Now that you understand why email accessibility is important, it’s time to proceed to the next section, where we’ll uncover the main types of disabilities you need to take into consideration when building your email campaigns.

Types of Disabilities That Impact Email Accessibility

Before creating accessible emails, you need to take into account different disabilities that influence the way subscribers engage with your content. In this section, we’ll consider the main disability categories and provide useful tips to help you create inclusive emails.

• Visual impairments. This type of disability includes blindness, low vision, and color blindness. When customers struggle to read visual content, it's important to make it easier for them to interpret these emails. Therefore, using high-contrast text and backgrounds, adding descriptive alt text for images, and providing screen reader-friendly emails with proper HTML structure is advisable.
• Cognitive and neurological disabilities. Dyslexia, ADHD, autism, and traumatic brain injuries can affect how people read, focus, and process information. Because of this, it’s essential to use clear, simple, and concise language when writing emails for your subscribers. By incorporating a clear structure with headings, bullet points, and short paragraphs, you can effectively communicate your message to a broad audience.
• Auditory impairments. Subscribers with hearing loss or deafness might not have the ability to interact with video or audio-based content. That’s why it’s better to avoid it or ensure a text transcript when building emails for your customers. If you need to add videos to your emails, consider adding closed captions or subtitles so that all subscribers can engage with your content.
• Motor disabilities. When subscribers have motor impairments, such as Parkinson’s disease, cerebral palsy, or arthritis, they may struggle with using a mouse or clicking on small elements in your emails. To enhance interaction with your content, you should include visible, easily tappable buttons and enable customers to navigate using their keyboards. Include emails, create simple forms, and provide links that are easy to engage with. 

Now that you know the types of disabilities, it’s necessary to understand how to provide a seamless user experience to all of your subscribers.

If you strive to expand your reach and provide exceptional experiences to each of your subscribers, you should prioritize email layout, CTAs, fonts, visuals, and other elements. We’ll uncover some effective ways of attaining these goals.

1. Apply a simple layout. When creating emails, consider using a single-column layout to enable subscribers to seamlessly navigate your email content. Clear headings, subheadings, and bullet points help divide your content into logical sections, allowing recipients to quickly scan the email. Additionally, maintaining a logical reading order and using a width of 600-700px will enhance readability for subscribers.
2. Use descriptive and structured HTML. Use semantic HTML such as <h1>, <h2>, <p>, and <ul> to structure your email content clearly. Organizing text with headings and subsections improves readability, making it easier for recipients to navigate and quickly find the information they need.
3. Use easily readable fonts. Using large, clear fonts ensures that every subscriber can read your content and use it to their advantage. It’s advisable to apply a minimum font size of 14px–16px for body text and 20px for headings.
4. Add high-contrasting colors. Using high color contrast allows your subscribers to see everything clearly and read your content effortlessly. A minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 is ideal for text and background. However, you shouldn’t rely solely on color. It’s better to incorporate icons, labels, or underlines to convey specific meanings.
5. Ensure that all the CTAs and links are easily clickable. Add tappable buttons that allow subscribers to easily click and engage with your company. They should measure at least 44x44px in size. To prevent misclicks, ensure sufficient space between each link and button.
6. Avoid using flashing elements and auto-playing videos. Avoid adding blinking or flashing elements to your email campaigns, as they can potentially trigger seizures. If you need to include video or audio in your emails, consider giving subscribers full control over these elements. These media should not autoplay; let your recipients choose when to play your videos. Additionally, include captions or transcripts for each of your videos to enhance email accessibility.
7. Use a mobile-first design. As more people check their inboxes from smartphones, it’s essential to provide them with excellent experiences. Clickable text, buttons, and links are vital for enabling subscribers to seamlessly explore your emails. A responsive design will adjust to different screen sizes and look appealing on any device. Before sending your emails to recipients, test them to ensure they are easy to open, read, and click.
8. Use simple language. To create content that is easy to understand, you should use simple language. When developing your emails, avoid jargon and complex sentences. This will help your subscribers explore your content without complications.
9. Build clear short forms. All form fields should be labeled correctly using the <label> tag. Include buttons in the form with clear labels like "Submit" or "Cancel" instead of various abbreviations. Furthermore, users should be able to navigate your forms not only with a computer mouse but also with a keyboard.

To summarize, email accessibility is essential for every business to ensure their products are available to all. By creating accessible emails, you can broaden your reach and deliver an exceptional customer experience to your subscribers. This boosts customer satisfaction, reinforces company ethics, and has significant implications for society as a whole.

Last Updated: 31.03.2025