Latest / The Email Marketing Podcast with Fexingo: Newsletters, Open Rates, and Subscriber Growth / Why Email Accessibility Boosts Engagement and Revenue
Transcript
- Lucas: There's this stat I keep coming back to: roughly 15 percent of the global population lives with some form of disability. That's over a billion people. And yet, when I pull up most marketing emails, they're essentially invisible to a screen reader. Luna: And by invisible, you mean the images have no alt text, the links say 'click here,' and the whole layout is a table-based mess that reads in the wrong order? Lucas: Exactly. And the thing is, when you fix those issues, it doesn't just help people using assistive technology. It tends to improve the experience for everyone. Better structure, clearer calls to action, faster load times. Luna: So you're making a business case, not just a moral one. Lucas: I am. Let me give you a concrete example. A mid-size online retailer — I won't name them, but they're in the home goods space — redesigned their promotional emails to meet basic accessibility standards. They added descriptive alt text to product images, increased color contrast on buttons, and made sure the heading hierarchy was logical in the code. Their click-through rate went up by 13 percent. That's not a tiny bump. Luna: Thirteen percent. And did they see any change in unsubscribe rates or spam complaints? Lucas: Actually, unsubscribe rates stayed flat, but the open rate ticked up a couple of percentage points. The theory is that a clearer layout makes it easier to skim, even if you're not using a screen reader. You're reducing cognitive load for everyone. Luna: So what are the most common mistakes you see in email accessibility? And be honest — I'm probably guilty of a few. Lucas: Number one is missing or useless alt text. An image of a blue sweater should have alt text that says 'Women's navy merino wool sweater, $89,' not just 'product image.' Number two is poor color contrast. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines recommend a contrast ratio of at least 4.5 to 1 for normal text. A lot of brands use light grey on white because it looks clean, but it's unreadable. Luna: I've definitely been guilty of the grey-on-white. It looks great in the design preview, but in practice it's a strain. Lucas: Right. And number three is link text that says 'read more' or 'click here.' Screen reader users often navigate by jumping from link to link. If every link says 'click here,' they have no idea where each one goes. Use descriptive link text: 'read more about our return policy' or 'shop the winter collection.' Luna: Doesn't that also help with engagement? If someone can tell exactly where a link leads, they're more likely to click. Lucas: Exactly. It's one of those accessibility fixes that overlaps perfectly with good marketing practice. And speaking of good practice, if you've been getting value from these conversations — if something I've mentioned has made you rethink an email template or try a new subject line — a couple of dollars a month is genuinely what keeps these going. Buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, if you've gotten something out of them. Luna: It really does make a difference. We keep the show ad-free, and listener support is the reason we can keep drilling into these specific angles without worrying about sponsors. Lucas: Okay, back to accessibility. The other big issue I see is that emails are often built in a way that assumes a visual layout. If you're a person who uses a screen reader, the content might read in the wrong order — the sidebar first, then the main body, then the header. That's disorienting. Luna: That comes from using complex table structures, right? A lot of email templates still rely on nested tables for layout. Lucas: Exactly. And while tables are necessary for rendering in Outlook, you can use semantic HTML to signal the reading order. There's a standard called ARIA — accessible rich internet applications — and it gives you attributes like role equals 'main' or role equals 'navigation.' Not all email clients support it perfectly, but it's getting better. Luna: So what's the first step for a marketer who wants to start but feels overwhelmed? I imagine auditing every existing template sounds like a nightmare. Lucas: Start with the template you send most often. Your weekly newsletter, your primary promotional email. Run it through a tool like the WAVE accessibility checker — it's free. Fix the alt text and the link text first. Those two changes alone will move the needle. Then tackle contrast and reading order. Luna: And what about automated accessibility testing for emails? I've seen a few platforms claiming they can flag issues before you hit send. Lucas: They exist, and they're useful as a first pass. But they can't catch everything. For example, a tool can tell you that an image has alt text, but it can't tell you whether that alt text is actually descriptive. A human review is still necessary, especially for the most critical emails. Luna: That makes sense. I'm also wondering about the legal side. We've seen more lawsuits around website accessibility in recent years. Is email next? Lucas: It's possible. The Americans with Disabilities Act has been interpreted to cover websites, and some plaintiffs' firms are starting to test email. But I'd argue you should do this not because you're afraid of a lawsuit, but because it's a competitive advantage. If 15 percent of your audience can't fully engage with your email, you're leaving revenue on the table. Luna: And that 13 percent lift we mentioned earlier — that's just from basic fixes. Imagine what happens when you go further. Lucas: Right. Some brands are experimenting with plain-text alternatives that are fully accessible, or offering a preference for a screen reader friendly version. It's early, but the data is promising. Luna: Let's talk about one more practical thing: design tools. When you're building a template in Figma or Canva, are there things you can do upfront to make the email more accessible? Lucas: Absolutely. Use real text instead of text embedded in images. That way screen readers can actually read it. Choose color palettes with sufficient contrast — there are plug-ins that check this in real time. And build a clear visual hierarchy with headings that make sense even without the styling. Luna: It sounds like a lot, but really it's just about thinking about the user first. Lucas: That's the core of it. And the more we talk about it, the more it becomes standard practice. I think in five years, we'll look back at non-accessible emails the way we look at email blasts without personalization today — just obviously bad. Luna: Let's hope it's sooner than that. So, final question: with AI tools getting better at generating alt text and even restructuring layouts, do you see a future where email accessibility is largely automated? Lucas: I think AI will handle the low-hanging fruit — automatically generating alt text, checking contrast, even suggesting reading order improvements. But it won't replace human judgment. A human still needs to decide whether 'Navy merino wool sweater' is the right description for that particular audience. The nuance matters. Luna: Agreed. Accessibility is a practice, not a checkbox. Lucas: Exactly. And it's one that pays for itself.