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According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) over 1 billion people live with some form of disability. Specifically in the UK latest estimates from a recent government survey indicate that 14.6 million people had a disability in 2021 – 22% of the population.
That’s 22% of the UK population that are trying to access the web, but may be hitting barriers because of a lack of accessibility. However, when Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web, he was determined that it should be easily accessible by all. He famously said “The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.”
Web channels that are designed badly only serve to exclude those with varying disabilities accessing and engaging with your content. Therefore in many situations web accessibility is a requirement by law.
However, there are other reasons why we should be thinking accessibility first, including creating better customer experiences and in turn greater commercial opportunities.
Email marketing is an important web channel that should follow the same guiding principles. Create your emails with accessibility at its core and not only will you not exclude over 20% of your potential audience, you positively create great experiences for all, that leads to increased customer lifetime value.
Ensuring that your emails are accessible is not just a nice to have, it is business essential.
According to Email on Acid there are 6 main accessibility conditions we need to be thinking of when it comes to email marketing:
Let’s look at a few key best practices you need to be thinking about to ensure your emails are accessible.
From images to the structure of emails, there are many elements you should be thinking of when creating the wireframes of your email marketing templates to ensure they are accessible. Here’s a few to get you started:-
The contrast ratio of your emails not only affects those with visual impairment, but also affects everyone in different ways.
Here’s a great example of how different coloured text on different backgrounds can affect how clearly you can see the elements.
Aiming for a high colour contrast will ensure that the two colours don’t blend to create a blur. Here’s a tool you can use to ensure you’re using the right colour contrast ratio.
The below example demonstrates how an email might look to someone with colour blindness (email on the right). Notice how the colours no longer standout and are more muted.
It’s also important that when designing for dark mode you consider the best colour contrast, test different versions.
Readability is a key consideration for both accessibility and user experience. It means making sure that all audiences can read and understand what you’re writing. It includes the language you use, the structure of the text and the way you organise and present content. Here’s a few tips.
At Jarrang we’re passionate about accessibility. In fact all the templates built by our creative team are accessible as standard. If you’d like to discover whether your emails will pass accessibility best practices talk to one of our friendly team about our email marketing accessibility audits.