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Creating an email accessible for all

In a world where digital communication takes center stage, ensuring that your email communications are accessible to all is becoming a necessity.

Designing accessible emails means making them readable, understandable and usable by all, including your disabled and elderly profiles, or those who read their messages on mobiles.

An email that is not accessible to all represents a missed opportunity. Indeed, making your communications accessible means:

  • Reach a wider audience by including all profiles, without excluding any.
  • Demonstrate inclusiveness and social responsibility, by meeting the needs of all your profiles.
  • Improve your performance: accessible emails are often synonymous with better open and click rates.
  • Comply with legal obligations, (such as the European Accessibility Act, which imposes standards for digital communications by the end of June 2025).
  • Aligning with modern design practices, such as mobile-first, voice interfaces and human-centered user experience.

As a marketer, creating accessible messages does not only mean following a regulatory requirement, it also means maximizing the impact of your campaigns and ensuring that your message reaches your entire audience.

To help you make communications accessible to your entire audience, here are a few principles you can implement right now in your campaigns.

Provide descriptive ALT Text for images​

When adding images or CTA buttons to your communication, be sure to include an alternative text (ALT text).

This text should be sufficiently descriptive to enable profiles who rely on a screen reader or who do not have access to your images to understand the purpose and content of your visuals.

Use descriptive link text​

As for images, your hyperlinks must be placed behind text that makes sense to your readers. The aim is to enlighten your profiles as to the purpose behind these links. As far as possible, avoid using vague text or repetitive links that do not clearly explain the redirection of the link.

tip

Use clear text, such as 'Discover our summer catalog' instead of 'Discover more'.

Make sure your text is easy to read​

For your body text, pay special attention to:

Pour votre corps de texte, veillez à faire principalement attention à :

  • Fonts: avoid using fonts that are too decorative or with impasto, which can impair readability. Choose fonts that are easier to read, such as sans-serif fonts (e.g. Arial or Helvetica).

  • Text size: for optimum legibility, we recommend a minimum font size of 16 px.

  • Writing style: avoid writing entire words or text in capital letters, as this can make your content difficult to read.

  • Alignment: for the sake of readability, align your body text to the left and avoid center-aligning or justifying it.

note

In the Actito email editor, the default font size for paragraphs is 14px. If you wish, you can increase this size to 16px for your entire email via the 'Global style' menu.

Maintain Sufficient Color Contrast​

To make your messages easier to read for profiles with visual impairments or vision problems, be sure to use sufficiently contrasting colors for the background and text color. This rule also applies to distinguish the foreground from the background in your message.

It is recommended to have a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 between your colors to ensure your message is clearly visible.

To find out if the contrast is sufficient (WCAG compliant), do not hesitate to check the contrast ratio of your email.

tip

Although color is generally used to convey meaning, do not rely solely on it to communicate important information. Use labels, text, patterns or icons, in addition to color, to ensure that the right information is conveyed to your entire target audience.

Use (semantic) HTML structure​

If you code or import your own HTML to create your campaigns, use the right semantics and structure your HTML: use <h1>, <h2>, <p>, and <ul> tags to correctly define the structure of your e-mail.

Also be sure to include a language declaration (e.g. <html lang="en">).

This approach enables the screen reader to navigate and interpret your content accurately. Making it accessible to all.

tip

Using clean HTML semantics and a good structure helps you get past spam filters and improves your deliverability. Moreover, a good structure also means better readability for everyone, and therefore higher click and open rates.