Ever had the frustrating experience of opening an email on your mobile device only to be unable to access its content because the call-to-action buttons are inaccessible?
This sometimes also happens to persons with disabilities when they are faced with digital content that was not created with accessibility in mind. However, as a universal communication tool, it’s important for email to comply with certain accessibility principles.
For this reason, today accessibility is directly related to email deliverability. Anti-spam filters and email systems are increasingly considering errors in accessibility (such as poorly programmed HTML formatting, overly small or stylized fonts, missing alt text or insufficient colour contrast) as spam indicators, which may cause certain emails to be blocked and directly affect the campaign engagement rate.
Are you experiencing other types of deliverability issues? Read our tips on the new rules for Gmail and Yahoo here.
This article presents a few examples and best practices for making your emails more accessible.
En résumé
Accessibility aims to remove obstacles that may prevent people with disabilities from fully participating in society. It’s about creating environments, services, and products that can be used and appreciated by every individual, irrespective of their physical, sensory, cognitive, or intellectual abilities.
To create a fair and equitable society, the idea of accessibility is closely related to the notion of inclusivity, although there are differences. Inclusivity goes well beyond the concept of accessibility by creating an environment in which people feel welcomed, valued, and respected. It involves promoting a culture of acceptance and understanding.
In the digital world, the guiding principles for ensuring the accessibility of web content (WCAG 2) were developed and standardized by W3C in collaboration with individuals and organizations around the world, the goal being to provide a single set of standards that fulfill the needs of individuals, organizations, and governments no matter where they are located.
Each principle is accompanied by testable criteria for success, ranked according to three levels:
A: Minimum level of conformity
AA: Recommended level
AAA: Most accessible level
The A and AA conformity levels are the most commonly used for evaluating accessibility on the web.
According to the WHO’s World Report on Disability, approximately one billion people are currently living with a disability and close to 200 million of them have very serious functional issues. In the years ahead, disability will become a growing concern as its prevalence increases due to aging populations and the increased risk for disability amongst the elderly
In Canada, according to the Canadian Survey on Disability, 27 percent of Canadians aged 15 and over have at least one disability: 10.6 percent have limited mobility, 10.9 percent have limited flexibility, 7.4 percent have visual impairments, and 5.6 percent have auditory impairments.
To enable everyone to access content online despite their disabilities, legislation to this effect has been established in countries around the world.
Many countries have implemented laws and regulations to enable people with disabilities to exercise their right to educational, professional, and social integration and to consume digital content based on their needs.
A few examples of established laws and regulations:
The Act to Secure Handicapped Persons in the Exercise of Their Rights with a View to Achieving Social, School and Workplace Integration, established in 2004, provides for certain sanctions for organizations that do not comply with its measures. These sanctions may include notices of violation, corrective measures, fines, and legal proceedings.
The Accessible Canada Act (ACA), implemented in 2019, includes sanctions for non-compliance that can reach up to $250,000.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), established in the U.S. in 1990, requires companies and online services to be accessible to disabled people. The ADA includes directives on the accessibility of websites and mobile applications, particularly the use of assistive technologies such as screen readers.
The European Accessibility Act (EAA), established in 2019, requires member states of the European Union to implement the directive within their own national laws before June 28, 2022, and to enforce it as of June 28, 2025. The Act covers a variety of products and services that aim to enable disabled people to efficiently access digital content in an independent way.
Anyone desiring to use the web must have access to content that is:
1. Hierarchical titling to facilitate reading
Best practices:
2. The efficiency of single-column page layouts
Best practices:
1. Text and typography that is clear and easy to read
Best practices:
1. Fluid navigation within emails, even when using a keyboard
2. Design intuitive buttons
Best practices:
3. Ensure adaptability on many devices—computers, mobile phones, etc.
Desktop version
Mobile version
Best practices:
Additional tip:
Example of an email read by voice reader
Original email
Email read by voice assistant
1. Alternative descriptive text for all non-text content
Best practices:
2. Optimize images for email loading and reduce the risk they will be clipped in Gmail
Poor practices:
Additional tips:
1. A palette adapted for visual impairments
Examples of how colours are perceived depending on the visual impairment:
Poor practices:
Additional tip:
Test your emails using a tool like Litmus to ensure that the colours used do not complicate reading for people with a visual impairment
2. High colour contrast between different elements of the email
Poor practices:
Testing tool result showing that the colour contrast does not meet AA requirements (the recommended level)
Additional tip:
1. Structure and arrange the HTML code for emails
A few examples of HTML code elements that promote accessibility:
Dans les années à venir, et avec l’évolution de la technologie, offrir des contenus numériques accessibles sera d’une importance capitale pour permettre aux personnes en situation de handicap de répondre à leurs besoins quotidiens de façon autonome, tels que régler des factures en ligne, rester informer, prendre des rendez-vous médicaux, etc.
Pour les courriels, cet article constitue un bon point de départ pour envisager des axes d’amélioration qui demandent parfois peu d’effort et qui peuvent avoir un impact significatif sur l’expérience des personnes en situation de handicap.
Si vous souhaitez obtenir plus d’informations sur l'accessibilité des courriels, n'hésitez pas à nous contacter.
This article was written by Lucie de Almeida with valuable support from Maxime Philippon.