Accessibility Guide

Accessibility

Is my email accessible?

Creating accessible email content not only provides access to people with disabilities, it also improves the overall readability of the email content.

Text

• Text should be clear and easy to read.
• Avoid difficult fonts.
• Ensure there is enough contrast between the foreground color and the background color.

Content Organization

• Use headings to organize content by category or topic.
• Use lists to organize information by ideas or processes.

Images

• Images that convey important information require a text alternative that describes the image.

Links

• Link text must be descriptive.
• Do not use link text such as "Read more", "Click here", etc.
• Best practice is to bold or underline links.
• Do not use color as the only method to convey important information.

For more email best practices, visit UDC's Email Accessibility page.

Infographic taken from California State University, Northridge - Universal Design Center.

• Make subject lines descriptive of your email. This helps people who use screen readers or text to speech software know if the email if worth reading.
• If you choose to use colors in your email, stick with contrasting colors - especially with backgrounds or text.
• Describe your visuals with ALT text to help people with visual impairments. Some examples of visuals include photos, illustrations, SmartArt graphics, shapes, group charts, embedded objects, ink, and videos.
• If you choose to use emojis, make you that you listen to how they would sound on a screen reader or text to speech software.
• Be mindful of the fonts you use in your email. Reduce your reading load and try using sans serif fonts such as Arial or Calibri. Avoid all capital letters and excessive italics and/or underlines. Remember also to have a good amount of white space between sentences and paragraphs.
• A screen readers keep track of its location in a table by counting cells. If you merge tables or the cells are either merged or split, a screen reader can lose its count. Blank cells can also mislead screen readers into thinking that there is nothing inside a table. If you are working in a Microsoft program such as Word or Excel, use the Accessibility Checker to ensure that tables do not contain split cells, merged cells, or nested tables.
• If there is a video attached to or linked in the email, make sure that there is closed captioning available for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.