Your email audience will be diverse, including their abilities to access the information you are sharing. It is important to keep in mind the various challenges your recipients might have in reading your emails, including vision, hearing, physical, or cognitive disabilities. These guidelines will help you create accessible emails for a wide audience.
Use descriptive alt text
When adding images to an email, be sure to add descriptive alt text. This will allow screen readers to describe the image to any recipient with visual impairments.
- When writing alt text, be concise but specific.
- You don’t need to start the description with “image of” or “picture of” but you can include descriptions like “headshot,” “illustration,” or “chart.”
- If your image has text in it, be sure that it is included in the alt text description; never use text that can’t easily be described by alt text.
- Learn more about how to add alt text from the User Experience Office.
Alt text has the added benefit of showing that an image is present even when it hasn't loaded. Microsoft Outlook, for example, does not load images by default, and alt text can show your constituents that there are images they should load.
Make links descriptive and easy to click
For most emails, the goal is to get the reader to click through to your website. Make that action as easy as possible for your entire audience.
- Use hyperlinks in your text so that a screen reader doesn’t have to read an entire URL (dashes, dots, symbols, etc.).
- Make sure the text describes where the link goes. Don’t use “click here” or “read more”; instead use “learn about link best practices.”
- Hyperlinks should stand out from the rest of the text, which is why they are a different color in the email framework. Be sure not to use the link color in other, non-hyperlinked text. In-line text links should be underlined and colored with the #006298 IU color. Don't underline non-links, instead bold them to accentuate. Call to action buttons or links with an arrow icon next to them do not need to be underlined.
- Links (text or buttons) should be large enough that those with dexterity challenges can easily tap them when using a mobile phone or other touch-screen device. The IU email framework is set up to ensure links are large enough to be accessible, so you shouldn't need to modify links when using it.
Consider your content
You spend a lot of time deciding what your message will be, but you also need to think about how the information is presented.
- Break up content and use headings to make it easier to see separation of subject matter.
- Don’t use jargon, acronyms, or other content that is difficult to understand.
- Make sure the text contrasts with the background for those who may have colorblindness.
- Use a font size of at least 16 pixels to make it easier to see (this is also important for viewing emails on mobile phones.)