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Issue #177 All About Email

Issue #177 All About Email

Accessible Emails are Better for Everyone!

Simon Harper
February 17, 2025

Hi, friend. 👋

Welcome to Issue #177 of All About Email!

Last week, we looked at “Measuring Performance”, and it got a lot of responses from you lovely reader. Thank you!

This week, we examine our penultimate mini-series topic, “Accessibility“, and it’s the return of Weekly Email News & Tips.

Let’s go! 👇

Accessible Email Marketing

⚠️ I understand, for many of my readers, that the timing of this email will be poignant given the controversial reversal of DEI legislation in the US.

However, it is also important for anyone who sends an email to a subscriber based in Europe with the upcoming European Accessibility Act.

As you read this week’s email, friend, please remember this phrase: “Accessible Emails are better for everyone!”

🧠 This isn’t the first time I’ve written about Accessibility; it’s one of my most regular topics.

If you want to read about this topic from different angles, I first looked at Issue #3 (introduction) of this newsletter and Issue #141 (accessibility as a human right).

99.97% of Emails are Inaccessible

Result

99.97% of HTML emails tested contain accessibility issues categorized as “Serious” or “Critical”.

Email Markup Consortium

⚡️ If you keep that phrase in mind and the stats above, we clearly have a lot of work to do.

Take a look at this image below. It is not specific to email, but many of the considerations (if not all) can be used for email. 👇

A poster from the UK Home Office titled 'Designing for users with low vision' provides guidelines on accessibility. The poster is divided into two columns: 'Do...' on the left and 'Don’t...' on the right. The 'Do' column advises using good color contrast and readable font sizes, publishing information on web pages, using a combination of color, shapes, and text, following a linear and logical layout, and placing buttons and notifications in context. The 'Don’t' column warns against using low contrast and small fonts, burying information in downloads, relying only on color to convey meaning, spreading content across a page, and separating actions from their context. The poster includes simple icons and illustrations to reinforce these points. A link to the full accessibility poster is provided at the bottom: ukhomeoffice.github.io/accessibility-posters/posters/accessibility-posters.pdf.

Download this Poster and more!

💡 The above is only a general guide, and there is a lot to consider when “designing accessible services.”

🚨 Unfortunately, ESPs and their limitations (or control of their code) restrict the accessibility of many emails.

Some ESPs are better than others, of course, and it’s up to you, after reading this email, whether you want to explore other ESPs.

A vibrant digital illustration featuring lifelike animated characters inspired by kids' Hollywood movies. A diverse group, including a young tech-savvy girl with glasses, a cheerful robot, and an elderly wise mentor, gathers around a large interactive screen displaying email accessibility tips such as "Alt Text for Images," "Readable Fonts," and "High Contrast Colors." The setting is a futuristic yet warm digital workspace with floating icons representing email accessibility improvements. The atmosphere is engaging, educational, and inviting

If ChatGPT (DALLE) could spell, that would help with accessibility. 🤦‍♂️

Top 10 Email Accessibility Issues

Remember that statistical quote at the beginning of this email?

💡 The data comes from the “Accessibility Report 2024” from the Email Markup Consortium, and I encourage you to read the report in detail.

If you don’t have time, here are the top 10 issues with email accessibility. 👇

Content inside the body should be wrapped in a dir attribute.|
Content inside the body should be wrapped in a lang attribute.
Tables used for formatting should have the role attribute set to presentation or none.
Page should contain a level-one heading.
Links must have discernible text.
<html> element must have a lang attribute.
Images must have alternate text.
Documents must have a <title> element to aid in navigation.
Link text should be descriptive.
Links must be distinguishable without relying on colour.

🚨 We can make many of these fixes ourselves as email marketers and developers, but sadly, some we cannot, as some ESPs don’t allow us to make these fixes (for example, number 6).

⚡️ If you want to check and fix the above issues in your emails friend, then the consortium has a detailed breakdown of fixes in their report.

🎉 I’ve been a supporter for almost three years now, and if you can support the consortium in any way, that will help improve everyone's email accessibility.

If you would like to contribute your emails for testing and improvement, then use the following details to add the Email Markup Consortium to your email list:

Field	Value
Email address	[email protected]
Name	Email Markup
Birthday	January 1, 2000
Address	1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500

How Did This Email Do?

💪 Accessibility is still something I struggle with, but I am getting much better at it.

After running this email through Parcel (and before making any changes), it had:

0 - critical issues
4 - serious issues
1 - moderate issue (easy to fix)

Of the four serious issues, two I need to speak to Beehiiv about (but one I don’t think is an issue), and the other two problems are template-related, which I can fix.

🧠 I’ve made the email code publicly available for any email devs who want to spot the accessibility issues (if you have a free Parcel account, you can import and run the accessibility checker with ease).

Email Marketing News & Tips

This week's excellent and insightful email news & tips:

Email Design System - Launch Your Email Design System to Improve Branding & Efficiency. (Beehiiv)
From compliance to connection - Why businesses must embrace email accessibility. (Litmus)
Inclusive Marketing - Email Accessibility: A Guide to EU Accessibility Act Compliance. (EmailLabs)
The Inbox - Is your mail sliding into the spam folder? (Alison Gootee)
Apple MPP - Which ESPs Provide The Most Accurate Reporting in 2025? (EmailTooltester)
Eight Email Types - There are all sorts of emails you might send readers, from newsletters to transactional messages. Here’s how to incorporate all of these into your email strategy. (Inbox Collective)
Did You Know? - Your Open Rates Are Wrong! Here's Why… (Lauren Meyer)
Which is for You? - How to choose an ESP based on deliverability. (Word to the Wise)
Email Expiration Date - Minutes of the First Supervisory Committee – Session of 12/19/2024. (Jonathan Loriaux)
Massive Updates - The latest Email Love Figma plugin feature lets you seamlessly add elements to existing components and build new ones from scratch. (Email Love)
Hello, Email Geek! - This Valentine's Day, we've created something special just for you: a paint-by-numbers surprise with a romantic twist! Each pixel holds a little piece of the picture, and it's up to you to reveal it. (Action Rocket)
State of Email 2025 - Your ultimate email marketing report with expert insights, data-driven benchmarks is now smarter than ever! (MailModo)
New in Mailchimp - The New Features You Need To Know About. (Emily Ryan)
New Awards! - The Inbox Awards are for excellence in newsletter strategy. We’re honouring operators who are delivering exceptional experiences for the inbox. (Inbox Collective & Optimism)
Deliverability Indicators - Email Opens. Are they obsolete? (Alison Gootee & Braze)

If you have a question about this email or email marketing, reply, and I will answer you as soon as possible.

I hope you have a great week! 👋