Accessibility

Accessibility Quick Tip: How to Ensure Your Email Communications are Accessible by All

By Regan Harper: Published on
Accessibility

Making emails accessible ensures that all recipients, including those with disabilities, can understand and interact with the content. Luckily, accessibility practices transfer from one medium to another, so what you have been doing to enhance accessibility for your web pages and documents can be applied to your email communications as well. Whether you are sending an individual email to a colleague, or a mass email to a select community, here are some best principals of practice for creating any accessible email:

  • Use a concise and descriptive subject line. 
  • Use a black or dark gray font.
  • Make sure the font size is readable.
  • Use bold text to emphasize your messaging. Don’t use highlighter, italics, or underlined text.
  • Use hyperlinked text instead of typing/pasting in the full URL. 
  • If you must use color, use it sparingly and ensure it has an appropriate contrast ratio.
  • Don’t use emojis or graphics to replace words. 
  • When a graphic needs to be included, add alt text to the image. Don’t forget to add alt text to the images in your email signature, as well.
  • Use plain language best practices when drafting the body of your email. 

Sending Out Mass Email Promotions

Sometimes you may need to communicate with many people at once to share something exciting that is coming, or an upcoming event at your library or museum that you want others to participate in. These emails have an audience of many, and require care when constructing as you will not necessarily know what additional needs members of the audience will have to successfully engage with what you are sharing. In order to ensure that the content of your email blast is hitting the mark, let’s look at the above best principals of practice in more detail.

Use a Clear and Simple Layout

  • Single-Column Layout: Use a single-column layout to make the email easier to navigate, especially for screen readers.
  • Consistent Structure: Keep the structure consistent with headings, paragraphs, and lists to make content easier to follow.

Proper Use of Headings

  • Semantic Headings: Use proper HTML heading tags (e.g., <h1>, <h2>, <h3>) to structure your email content. Headings help screen reader users navigate the email more effectively.
  • Avoid Using Images for Headings: Instead of using images, use text-based headings to ensure they are accessible to all users.

Alt Text for Images

  • Descriptive Alt Text: Provide descriptive alt text for all images so that screen readers can convey the content of the images to users who cannot see them. This includes images in your signature file.
  • Avoid Redundant Alt Text: If an image is purely decorative, use empty alt text (e.g., alt="") to ensure it is ignored by screen readers.

Readable Font and Size

  • Legible Font Size: Use a minimum of 12px for body text to ensure readability.
  • Use Readable Fonts: Stick to simple, easy-to-read fonts such as Arial, Verdana, or Helvetica. Avoid decorative or script fonts.
  • Avoid Unnecessary Styling: Use bold or color sparingly to highlight important information.

Color Contrast and Visual Elements

  • Avoid Relying on Color Alone: Do not rely solely on color to convey information. For example, if you use color to indicate a link, also underline it.
  • Color Contrast Ratio: Ensure that text has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 against its background to meet accessibility standards. This is crucial for people with visual impairments, including those with color blindness.
  • Avoid Light Text on Light Backgrounds: Dark text on a light background or vice versa is ideal.

Descriptive Links

  • Meaningful Link Text: When possible, avoid displaying full URLs in the text. Use descriptive text for links instead of generic phrases like “click here.” This helps users understand where the link will take them without needing additional context.
  • Keyboard Accessibility: Ensure that the links are keyboard-navigable and don’t rely on hover effects that may not work for keyboard users.

Accessible Attachments

  • Accessible File Formats: If you’re attaching files, ensure they are in accessible formats (e.g., accessible PDFs or Word documents).
  • Describe the Content: Provide a brief description of the attachment within the email so recipients know what to expect before opening it.

Tables for Data, Not Layout

  • Simple Tables: Use tables for presenting data, not for layout. Ensure that data tables have headers marked with <th> and that they are labeled properly for screen readers.
  • Avoid Nested Tables: Nested tables can be difficult for screen readers to interpret, so avoid using them.
  • Tables for Data: If you must include tables for presenting data (e.g., office locations), ensure the table is marked up correctly with appropriate headers.

Accessible Buttons

  • Descriptive Button Text: Use clear, concise text on buttons that describes the action (e.g., “Download Report” instead of “Click Here”).
  • Ensure Buttons are Keyboard Accessible: Ensure that buttons can be activated using the keyboard (i.e., no mouse required).

Use Plain Text Version

  • Plain Text Alternative: Always include a plain text version of your email to accommodate recipients who use screen readers or prefer to read plain text.

Test for Accessibility

  • Preview on Multiple Devices: Ensure your email is accessible and legible on various devices, including mobile phones and tablets.
  • Test with a Screen Reader: Use a screen reader (such as JAWS, NVDA, or VoiceOver) to test how your email signature is interpreted. This ensures that users with visual impairments will be able to navigate and understand the content.
  • Test Keyboard Navigation: Ensure that users can navigate through all links and interactive elements using the keyboard alone.

Language and Tone

  • Clear Language: Use plain language to ensure the content is understandable by a broad audience, including those with cognitive disabilities.
  • Avoid Jargon: Keep the language simple and avoid industry-specific jargon that may not be understood by all recipients.

Signature Files:

Ensuring that email signature files are accessible is important for all recipients, especially those with disabilities. Accessibility considerations should be applied to email signature designs to make sure that everyone can interact with the information easily. Here are some additional key aspects to consider as well as those already listed above, when creating accessible email signature files.

Text-Based Signatures

  • Plain Text is Best: Using text rather than images for your email signature is the most accessible option. Screen readers can easily read text, but they often cannot interpret text embedded in images.
  • Structured Information: Present information in a structured format, such as listing your name, title, company, and contact information in separate lines. This ensures clarity and ease of reading. For example:
  Jane Smith  Programming Manager
  The Library
  jsmith@thelibrary.org
  (303) 555-1234

Images in Email Signatures

  • Avoid Image-Only Signatures: Avoid creating email signatures that consist solely of images, as screen readers cannot interpret text within an image.
  • Avoid Complex Graphics: Refrain from using complex graphics or unnecessary decorative elements in the signature.

Social Media Icons

  • Accessible Icons: If you include social media icons (LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.), ensure they have meaningful alt text that identifies the platform they link to.
  • Keyboard Accessibility: Ensure the social media icons are focusable and accessible via the keyboard. You can add descriptive text like alt="Follow me on Twitter" to the image.

Use Accessible Email Clients

  • Email Client Compatibility: Ensure that the signature is compatible with common email clients, including Outlook, Gmail, Apple Mail, and mobile email apps. Some clients handle accessibility features better than others, so test your signature across platforms.

Accessible Phone Numbers

  • Clickable Phone Numbers: For accessibility and convenience, make phone numbers clickable by including tel: links. This allows users to click on the number directly from mobile devices or computers to initiate a call. For example:
    • <a href="tel:+13035551234">+1 (303) 555-1234</a>

Multimedia Content

  • Avoid Multimedia: Avoid embedding videos, audio files, or other multimedia in email signatures, as these can pose accessibility challenges. If necessary, provide accessible, clearly labeled links to external content.

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Regan Harper
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