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What is accessibility and why should you care about it as a designer?

Accessibility is all about making sure that your designs can be used and read by as many people as possible, regardless of ability or disability. This means taking into account factors like readability, content, color, font size, links, buttons, and alt text. By ensuring that your designs are accessible, you’re not only making them better for everyone, but you’re also future-proofing your work. After all, as the population ages and more people develop disabilities, accessibility will only become more important. So why not start taking accessibility into account from the get-go? It’ll make your life easier in the long run. Trust us.

The basics of designing an accessible email

Email is a critical part of business communications, but it’s not always easy to make sure your messages are accessible to everyone. Here are a few basic tips for designing accessible email:

• Use color judiciously. Too much color can be difficult to read, especially for people with color blindness. Stick to a maximum of two or three colors, and make sure there’s enough contrast between the background and the text.
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• Keep your content short and to the point. No one wants to wade through a wall of text, so focus on making your message clear and concise.
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• Use a large font size and simple typeface. Small text can be hard to read, so go with a size that’s easy on the eyes. And steer clear of fancy fonts – they may look nice, but they can be difficult to read.
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• Make sure your buttons are big and easily clickable. No one likes hunting for tiny buttons, so make them large and obvious.
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• Use alt text for images. This ensures that people who are using screen readers can still understand your message.

By following these tips, you can make sure your email is accessible to everyone – no matter what their needs might be.

How do you know if you email is accessible or not?

Most of us take email for granted- we send messages without a second thought to whether or not they’ll actually be received and read by our recipients. But for businesses, accessible email is essential to maintaining good customer relations and avoiding lawsuits. So how can you tell if your message will reach its intended audience? There are a few different ways. Litmus and Email on Acid are both email testing tools that allow you to send test emails to see how they appear in different email clients. This can be helpful in identifying any potential accessibility issues.

Top resources to help you make your emails more accessible

Email accessibility is important for all marketers, but it can be a challenge to know where to start. Luckily, there are some great resources available to help you make your emails more accessible. Here are four of the best:

• Litmus is a tool that allows you to test your emails for accessibility issues. It also provides a helpful email accessibility checklist that you can use to make sure you’re covering all the bases.
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• Campaign Monitor has an excellent article on email accessibility, which covers everything from using alt text to designing for different screen sizes. They also offer a free accessibility testing tool that you can use to check your emails.
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• Mailchimp has a helpful guide on making your emails accessible, which includes tips on using alt text and adding captions to images. They also offer a free accessibility checking tool.
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• Email on Acid is another great resource for accessibility testing. Their accessibility checking tool will give you a detailed report on any accessibility issues in your email, and they also offer helpful guidance on how to fix those issues.

Who to follow for email accessibility tips and advice

When it comes to tips and advice on email accessibility, Paul Airy (@Paul_Airy) is the first person to follow. Paul is a web accessibility consultant with a background in web content and information architecture, and he knows all there is to know about making emails as accessible as possible. Paul’s posts offer valuable insight on topics like semantic markup, headings, alternate text for images, correct image display, word counts and more. He also offers useful resources like checklists for email designers and developers that save time by providing easy-to-use tools for testing their work. Paul’s thought-provoking and often humorous discussions give readers the opportunity to stay informed on all the latest accessibility standards when it comes to email design – it doesn’t get much better than that! Paul Airy’s Twitter account is a must follow if you’re looking for some sound advice on improving your emails’ overall accessibility.  Follow @Paul_Airy today!

Accessibility might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you sit down to design an email, but it’s something that should definitely be on your radar. By following the tips and best practices in this article, you can make sure your emails are accessible to everyone—and that’s pretty darn awesome. So what are you waiting for? Go forth and conquer those inboxes!

Much love,
Andy

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @emaillove