Overview

This lesson shares some things to think about and explore when using third-party services for email campaigns and marketing services.

Core Concepts

Email Marketing Services

When it comes to creating widespread email campaigns, most people use an email marketing service like Mailchimp or Constant Contact. These vendors provide a platform for you to compose your email (often with more templates and visual features than your standard email client) and distribute your email to large audiences.

Since we cannot address the process for creating accessible emails in every marketing service, we'll focus on the things to look for and ask the vendor about.

Authoring Platform

When it comes to authoring platforms, you want to look for tools that support accessibility: headings, alt text, lists, descriptive hyperlinks, responsive template (mobile friendly), strong color contrast, clean fonts, etc.

Not only do you want to make sure you can create accessible emails, but also think about the platform itself - is it accessible? Can a person with a disability compose an accessible email without issue?

Mobile & Responsive Design

It's pretty standard now for folks to access their email accounts on both a computer and phone. Because of this, you want to make sure that any email template you select is responsive. That means it will adjust to the size of the user's screen and not force them to scroll sideways to read your message.

Mobile design is often compatible with accessible design. Both are responsive and adjust to meet the needs of the viewer.

Talking With Vendors

If you are using or thinking about using an email marketing service, it may be helpful to talk with the sales rep to set up a demo focused specifically on accessibility. While some vendors will shrug off responsibility and say it's all up to the email author to make their email accessible, they should be able to identify the tools that are available for the author to do so. Below are some questions you can ask a third party vendor about accessibility:

Can a plain text alternative be provided?
Do templates include a logical heading structure or the ability to add one?
Can images include alt text?
Can template colors be modified to ensure adequate color contrast?
In terms of the authoring platform itself, is it WCAG 2.1 AA compliant?

Additional Resources

Accessibility in Email Marketing - Mailchimp's resource on creating accessible emails.

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