In this article, you will learn about tools for email accessibility — from testing your emails to designing accessible emails from the start. These resources will ensure your campaigns are inclusive and functional for all subscribers.
Email accessibility testing ensures that all subscribers, including those with disabilities, can fully engage with email content. It helps to identify and address potential barriers that might hinder usability. Now, let’s explore the tools designed to test emails for accessibility.
Why is email accessibility testing important?
Before diving in, let’s take a moment to remind ourselves why testing is so essential.
Imagine this:
- in a room of four people, at least one struggles with vision problems, while one out of 180 is completely blind;
- if a company uses colors like red or green to indicate correct or incorrect responses, one in 12 men and one in 200 women might struggle to interpret them accurately due to color blindness;
- in a group of 20 people with epilepsy, at least one person may have photosensitive epilepsy, making flashing or too-bright visuals potentially harmful;
- out of 10 people on Earth, one has dyslexia. Globally, that’s comparable to the entire population of Europe struggling with overly complex text;
- in a group of 100 people, 12 might have motor disabilities, which can make small buttons, hover-only interactions, or complex navigation difficult to use;
- in that same group, five to six people would have disabling hearing loss, affecting their ability to process sound-based content or rely on audio cues.
This highlights the diversity of needs among email recipients and the importance of making emails accessible to everyone.
Even when we follow accessibility guidelines, some issues can still go unnoticed.
That’s where accessibility testing tools become essential — they help ensure every email you send has no accessibility issues and is functional for all subscribers.
Email accessibility involves addressing a range of disabilities requiring specific tools to test and ensure inclusivity.
Testing emails for photosensitivity triggers
Why test: Visuals with three or more flashes per second can trigger seizures in people with photosensitive epilepsy.
What to test: Animations, videos shared in the email, and color combinations.
Testing tools for animations
- Trace RERC (PEAT): Developed by the University of Maryland, this tool verifies that your GIFs comply with the recommended limits on flashing frequency. You must download it to start using it.
What to do if your animations don’t comply
If your animations exceed the flashing limits outlined in WCAG guidelines, online services like Ezgif allow you to easily slow down or optimize their speed.
(Source: Ezgif)
Tools to create animations that comply with accessibility standards
When creating animations, you can gain control over the number of frames per second with tools such as Photoshop by Adobe and Ezgif, ensuring compliance with accessibility standards.
Pro tip: Avoid placing more than one GIF per screen. Multiple animated elements displayed simultaneously can trigger photosensitive epilepsy, just like animations with more than three flashes per second.
Testing emails for color blindness
Why test: Emails that rely solely on color to convey meaning can be inaccessible to people with color blindness, making it difficult to interpret important information. Additionally, poor color contrast — such as bright yellow on light blue or light gray on medium gray — can make text difficult or even impossible to read.
What to test: Color-coded elements, such as buttons, labels, charts, banners, and other visual indicators.
Testing tools for color accessibility
- Coblis (Color blindness simulator): This tool simulates how individuals with various types of color blindness perceive your images, including those who can’t see red or green and those who see only monochromatic tones;
(The original image)
(How people who can’t see red perceive this image, according to Coblis. We showed these images to individuals with color blindness, and they reported seeing no difference)
- Accessible Colors: Checks the contrast of text and design elements (excluding images, unless you manually input the color values);
- WebAIM (Web Accessibility In Mind): This is an online tool for evaluating contrast ratios between text and background colors. Offers results for normal text, large text, and graphical elements;
- Contrast Checker by Lea Verou: Allows you to input color values or select colors from the palette to test contrast ratios, with visual previews provided.
(Source: Contrast Checker by Lea Verou)
Tools for designing emails to ensure your visuals comply with accessibility standards
Most of the tools above can be used to check whether your imagery has sufficient color contrast. However, some tools go a step further by allowing you to see your imagery in real time as it appears to people with color deficiencies, enabling you to make necessary adjustments during the design process.
- Stark: A plugin for Figma, Sketch, FigJam, and Adobe XD that checks contrast ratios. Scans your design files during the development stage and provides real-time reports to address accessibility issues proactively;
- Color Oracle: A free desktop app that applies real-time color blindness filters to your screen. Helps you visualize how your design looks to users with different types of color blindness.
Testing emails for code validation
Why test: Ensuring valid email code is essential for accessibility, as structural errors can disrupt compatibility with assistive technologies.
What to test: HTML structure, table presentations, language direction, charset definitions, and compatibility with assistive technologies.
Testing tools for email code validation
- Accessibility Checker by Parcel: Evaluates email compatibility with screen readers and other assistive technologies. It ensures proper use of ARIA roles, alt text for images, semantic list structure, <area> elements with alternate text, and the inclusion of lang attributes. Additionally, it checks text direction for RTL and LTR compliance and much more;
- Accessible Email: This tool specializes in checking email code for compliance with screen readers, helping you identify and resolve potential barriers. It detects missing links, alt texts, and other accessibility issues.
(Source: Accessible Email, Checking alt texts)
Tools for creating accessible email code
- Stripo: All emails designed with Stripo are automatically compatible with screen readers, requiring no additional effort on your part. It preconfigures direction (RTL or LTR), charset settings, table structures, and more to ensure seamless compatibility with assistive technologies. To finalize accessibility, simply add alt text, ensure your links are descriptive, and complete your email design — all through an intuitive user interface.
General email accessibility testing
Why test: Even after optimizing for specific aspects like color contrast, animations, and code validation, it’s crucial to perform a general accessibility check. Comprehensive testing ensures that no issues are overlooked and that your email is fully functional across diverse devices, clients, and assistive technologies.
What to test: Color contrast, line spacing, and font size in text and buttons (to assist individuals with visual impairments and dyslexia), as well as left-aligned text (to improve readability for dyslexic readers) and more.
Testing tools for general email accessibility
- Litmus: Provides tools to evaluate email accessibility for users with visual impairments and those relying on assistive technologies. It includes visual impairment filters to simulate how emails appear to individuals with color vision deficiencies, checks for over 40 accessibility criteria like alt text and heading hierarchy, and offers NVDA screen reader previews to ensure audible content is accurate. Additionally, it supports text justification and language attribute checks to enhance overall accessibility;
- Email on Acid: Tests screen reader compatibility, image alt text, link functionality, color contrast, text alignment, and how your email appears when zoomed. It also detects repetitive alt text and unnecessary or excessive title attributes that may hinder screen reader usability. Additionally, it simulates how color-blind recipients perceive emails.
(Source: Email on Acid tool)
Wrapping up
Email accessibility testing ensures your campaigns are inclusive, functional, and engaging for all subscribers, regardless of their abilities. The tools covered in this article help you identify and resolve accessibility barriers at every stage, from design to final testing.
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