• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, March 2, 2022

Email teams may feel they have enough on their minds without having to deal with issues like the Americans With Disabilities Act. But they should be thinking about ADA and email accessibility, says Guy Hanson, vice president of customer engagement at Validity. 

Case in point: 2.2 billion people around the world suffer from a vision impairment, Hanson states, quoting the World Health Organization. Emails have to be crafted with those individuals in mind. 

How do you make email more readable? It starts using at least a 14-point font and provide lots of white space — good practices even when serving non-impaired customers — and break dense paragraphs into bite-sized chunks, Hanson says. 

A recent paper by the UK Direct Marketing Association points out that there are “many tools out there to help people with vision impairments access their emails. Whether it’s a specialist third-party software or extra hardware such as braille readers or electronic pointing devices, every reader must get the same value from their email.”

Then there are issues that take place “behind the scenes in code,” as Hanson puts it. 

For instance, some marketers like to throw tables or charts into their messages. “The tables can jumble up the text depending on which device it is,” Hanson says. “Does it read down or across”

Similarly, it pays to consider that smart speakers like Alexa may be reading the email. “Smart speakers often lack context —  they don’t know what they are looking at,” Hanson says. 

Mobile presents other challenges, some related to the increasing use of dark mode. People with astigmatism may experience a halation effect that can make type appear blurry. If you send an email that reverses the contrast: It’s better to use a semi-transparent color background, like translucent gray. 

On the other side of this,  Hanson has a friend with dyslexia who finds he can process documents in dark mode more effectively. 

Here’s another general design point: Justified text can be confusing to a dyslexic person, whereas unjustified type provides “a visual cue of where to start reading content,” Hanson observes.  

Email recipients may also need more guidance with calls to action. A button that says "click here" may not be meaningful to a person lacking full confidence in their ability to read email. It would be better to say, “Follow this link to view our offer.”

Many marketers have considered factors such as color contrast, screen readers and ADA compliance during email production. One Validity client, Nationwide Insurance, has implemented ADA in “every email campaign they’ve done,” Hanson says. “The have a checklist they’re following.”

But the ADA may not be the only reason.  

“You can practice accessibility because you’re legally required to, or because of social pressure, or because it’s also a strong best practice,” Hanson concludes.