Build emails that actually work for everyone
What’s inside
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How to structure your email code so that screen readers and other assistive technologies can navigate it correctly.
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Writing alt text, links, and CTAs that make sense out of context.
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Contrast ratios, color choices, and other rules for readable design.
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Font, spacing, and button sizing that make emails easier to experience and tap.
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What to check before you send — from flashing content to color-blind-safe palettes.
Expert insights
Chief Accessibility Officer at AudioEye
Accessibility as a discipline, as an attribute, as a feature, and more importantly, as a user interface design, is very low in the prioritization. And that’s because it is perceived as a cost of doing business as opposed to something that is really recipient-centric and recipient-focused.
Developer Advocate at Customer.io; Email Markup Consortium admin
It’s everybody’s responsibility. It’s the tools, it’s the senders, it’s the email clients.
Principal Consultant, The Strongbow Group
The patterns I trust most are pretty simple: use live text instead of image-based text, keep layouts simple, make link text meaningful, write alt text intentionally, and make sure the message still makes sense when the inbox strips out some of the polish. If the email still communicates the offer, the action, and the structure after the client mangles part of the code, you probably did it right.
LC Creative Consulting
There will be a continued need for human oversight, someone to guide, refine, and advocate for better experiences as tools and teams scale. Ultimately, accessibility won’t be solved by email clients alone. It will be shaped by the people designing and building the experiences.
Accessibility & Usability consultant; founder of Beyond the Envelope
Why is the needle moving so slowly? Because some of the challenges require a bit more thought and a bit more consideration. But my confidence is that we can break through those things and establish new standards. We are using paragraphs where we weren’t before. We are using headings where we weren’t before. We’ve moved a long way from 15 years ago.
Email Marketing Consultant, MS, Owner of Glasner Consulting
The main thing is to be conscious of accessibility practices when designing content. Trying to add accessibility after the interactive section is made is where you will run into trouble. Accessibility needs to be included in the design process from the start. For example, when imagery is made, we need to be conscious of accessibility practices, so fonts and colors are readable.
