Everyone is responsible for making their digital content accessible. When you create and send an email it’s important to remember that people read emails in different ways and might not process them in the same way you do.
Write clear subject lines
The subject line is the first thing the recipient reads, so it’s important to make sure your subject line is clear and easy to understand. Check your subject line matches the content of your email so the recipient has an idea of what it’s going to include.
Use headings
Headings can help break up information in an email to make it easier to read. It’s also helpful for assistive technology users as they can use the headings to navigate to the information they want.
Use Outlook's Styles menu to add headings to your email. This formats your text so assistive technology can read it as a heading.
Don't use bold, italics, or larger font sizes for headings. Screen readers and other assistive technologies don’t read bold or italic formatting. They also don’t identify different font sizes. If you use any of these to create headings, you make your content inaccessible and make it difficult for people with visual impairments to navigate your content.
Make sure you use headings in the correct order. For example, if you’ve used a heading 1 and want to add a subsection, use a heading 2. Don’t skip headings as this can confuse people.
Choose accessible font styles
Choose a font that is easy for anyone to read. It’s best to stick to sans-serif fonts like Arial and Calibri. Make your font size at least 12pt.
Avoid using serif fonts like Times New Roman or Garamond because some people find these hard to read.
Font formatting
Use bold and italics sparingly in your emails and don’t use them for large chunks of text. They can be difficult to read for people with visual impairments and screen readers don’t recognise them.
Font colours
Make sure that you use a font colour that has good contrast against the background, like black text on a white background.
Never use colour to convey information, for example:
- using a green font colour to mark that something is correct
- using a red font colour to mark that something is incorrect
This is not accessible for people with visual impairments or who are colourblind because they might not be able to see the different colours.
Make links accessible
Assistive technology users often navigate content by moving from link to link.
If you add a link as a full URL, people using assistive technology might have to read the whole link while navigating the email. This can be very frustrating for people and might not explain what the link is for.
To make your links accessible, you should either:
- paste links from Microsoft Edge
- write descriptive link text
Pasting links from Microsoft Edge
If you paste a URL from Microsoft Edge into Outlook, the link will show as the web page title and website domain, like this:
Undergraduate study 2024 (bath.ac.uk)
This is an easy and effective way to create an accessible link for an email.
Writing descriptive link text
If you don't use Microsoft Edge as your browser, you should write descriptive link text and insert your link URL into that.
Your descriptive text should give people context and tell them what they'll get by clicking the link.
Do not insert links into phrases like:
- click here
- see this page
- read more
Examples of good link text include:
- read our accessibility guidance
- sign up for the staff webinar
Make each link unique
Make sure all the links and link text in your email are unique. Duplicated links and link text can confuse people using assistive technology and make it hard for them to navigate the content.
Make images accessible
If you add images to an email, you must make them accessible to people who can't see them.
Add alternative (alt) text
People who can't see an image need alt text to understand what it conveys. This could include people using assistive technology and people reading emails without downloading images.
Add alt text to images to make them accessible. To do this, right-click on the image and click 'Add alternative text'. Write a short sentence describing the image.
Decorative images
If you include an image that doesn’t add any additional information to the email, this is known as a decorative image.
If your image is decorative, add '''' into the alt text field. Assistive technologies will then know to ignore it.
Be aware that adding decorative images might make colleagues who can't see them feel excluded.
Complex images
Complex images are pictures that contain a lot of information, like graphs, charts, and infographics.
Try to avoid using complex images in emails because they're not accessible to people who can't see them.
If you do need to send a complex image, you should also give a text summary of the information it conveys.
Use lists
Bulleted lists
Use the Bullets button if you want to create a bulleted list. Putting information into a bulleted list can help to:
- break up large chunks of text to make it easier to read
- highlight important information
Numbered lists
Use the Numbering button if you need to create a numbered list of step-by-step instructions.
Make email signatures accessible
Remember to include alt text if you use images or logos in your email signature. You should also make sure that any links in your signature are clear and descriptive so the recipient knows where the link will take them.
Copy accessible University email signatures to add to your work emails.
Use Microsoft Accessibility Checker
Before sending an email in Outlook, run the Microsoft Accessibility Checker. This tool can check for accessibility issues and, if it finds any, give you suggestions on how to fix the problem.
Find out how to run the Microsoft Accessibility Checker on your device.
The Accessibility Checker can’t find every accessibility issue so it’s important you check your emails manually too.
Keep email threads short
If you forward an email, remove any irrelevant emails from the thread. This makes it easier for assistive technology users because they don't have to read and navigate emails that aren't useful to them.
Assistive technologies read email threads starting with the most recent email, so make sure you provide enough background in your email so everyone can understand the context.