How to Improve Email Accessibility
The latest research on email accessibility paints a clear picture – too many emails still exclude people with disability. Only 29 percent of emails passed even the most basic accessibility checks.
A recent report has highlighted a persistent problem in digital communications, email accessibility remains concerningly low. The 2025 State of Email Accessibility report tested hundreds of real-world emails across a range of sectors and found that only 29 percent passed basic automated accessibility checks. The majority failed due to predictable and avoidable barriers.
These included:
- poor colour contrast
- missing or inadequate alternative text for images
- hard-coded layouts that break under screen magnification,
- lack of keyboard navigation and
- lack of structure that makes content unreadable in screen readers.
Fewer than 1 in 5 emails tested included semantic HTML to support assistive technologies, such as headings, lists and tables recognised by assistive technology and used to provide users with how content is structured and its relationship.
Why Email Accessibility Matters
These aren’t just minor oversights. For many people with disability, email is a primary form of communication, whether that’s a customer receiving a service update, an employee getting their onboarding pack, or a community member reading a council newsletter. When these messages are not accessible, critical information becomes out of reach.
The Knowledge Gap in Accessible Email Design
The report also identified a major knowledge gap. Most organisations surveyed do not test their emails for accessibility, and many of the teams responsible for building them have never received accessibility training.
Designers, developers, marketers, and admin teams are often expected to produce polished digital communications, but without the tools or understanding to make those communications inclusive.
Email and Document Accessibility Share the Same Foundations
This is where we see a strong overlap with document accessibility. Many of the same barriers, and solutions, apply. Emails, especially those created in platforms like Outlook or Mailchimp, often begin as Word documents or use similar formatting tools.
Missing headings, poor contrast, images with no alt text, inaccessible tables are issues are as common in emails as they are in Word or PowerPoint files. And so are the solutions.
Training is the First Step
Learning how to create accessible documents isn’t just about producing better reports, it builds the foundational skills needed to improve email accessibility too.
Structuring content with proper headings, using styles instead of manual formatting, checking reading order, writing meaningful link text, and ensuring adequate colour contrast are all practices that carry across formats.
Upcoming Training on Document Accessibility
We're running Making Microsoft Office Accessible training in August. This course is a practical starting point, is hands-on training session and builds real capabilites in accessible document creation from Microsoft Word to Office.