Email Accessibility in 2025: Why It Matters More Than Ever (and How to Get It Right)

Email accessibility has always been an important part of inclusivity—and thankfully, more states and countries are finally starting to prioritize it.  

Many are familiar with physical disability provisions, such as ramps and elevators, but digital accessibility is still overlooked.  

In marketing, it’s long been a question of ethics vs legality—while the hope was that marketers would choose to ethically create accessible content, the reality is that most needed laws to enforce it.  

Some accessibility regulations have been around for several years. You’ve likely heard of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), as well as Section 508, which refers to the digital world as well as the physical.  

Canada has the Accessible Canada Act and Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. Australia has the Disability Discrimination Act, and New Zealand has the New Zealand Government Web Accessibility Standard.  

While some are newer, some of these regulations have been around for decades. Hopefully, your company’s legal team is very familiar with them and the potential impact on your marketing.  

The European Accessibility Act 

There is, however, a brand-new regulation to learn about. The European Accessibility Act took full effect on June 28, 2025. Any business operating in the EU or selling to EU consumers must meet accessibility requirements or risk penalties. 

According to the European Commission, this is a “directive that aims to improve the functioning of the internal market for accessible products and services, by removing barriers created by divergent rules in Member States.” This includes digital experiences like email.  

EAA requirements 

The EAA outlines how to achieve compliance by referring to the European digital accessibility standard in EN 301 549. This incorporates the more widely known accessibility standard, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA criteria.  

What are the penalties for non-compliance? 

It varies.  

Within the EAA, there are country-specific nuances. In Ireland, for example, non-compliance can be punished with both a fine and imprisonment up to 18 months. Germany is transposing EAA into their Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz (BFSG), or Accessibility Strengthening Act, with fines up to €100,000.  

Many countries are also issuing fines as low as €5k up to €1.26M or a percentage of turnover. Penalties mostly depend on where the business is located.  

For US senders to European audiences, it can get a little tricky. Think of it similarly to the GDPR. If you are a US-based business with commerce (physical or digital) or locations in Europe, you can also be held liable under European laws.  

In the same way I often recommend following the strictest privacy policy to cover all future scenarios, I recommend US senders adopt EAA standards even if they aren’t legally required to do so.  

Why prioritize accessibility? 

Beyond the legality of accessibility, creating accessible content can help your brand by making sure your content can reach more people. Mobile users will appreciate larger text and clearer graphics, older subscribers will enjoy better contrast and readable fonts, and well-structured semantic HTML emails will enable screen readers to better interpret your email. 

Accessible content can lead to better deliverability too, since a good user experience is likely to increase engagement. Poorly designed and hard-to-read images can lead to complaints or fewer clicks, image-only emails can take too long to load, and no alt text means users with images turned off (such as many corporate Outlook users) won’t have any idea of what they’re supposed to see. Being an inclusive marketer can only help your company’s bottom line. 

How does accessibility look when brands get it right?  

Let’s look at one standout example. 

I don’t think anyone would be surprised to know that Ben & Jerry’s emails use very descriptive alt text, leading the way for inclusive designs.  

Instead of just a throwaway description like “header image” they describe what’s in the image down to the ice cream flavor and the fact that the flowers are food too, with their description: “Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie dough ice cream and a flowerpot with decorated ice cream flower-wiches.”  

OK, what should we do?  

• Run an audit of your email program. Find an accessibility tool or refer to WCAG.com recommendations. Consider user experience testing with people who use screen readers or other assistive devices regularly. We recommend involving your legal team in the process if you have one.
• Train your email team, designers, and leadership on the importance of following the EAA. If the ethics of it don’t have an impact, investigate the penalties they face based on your subscriber base and country.
• Create a plan to fix or re-design your creatives to make sure they meet all guidelines. Some key elements may include: 
• • Compatibility with screen readers and other assistive technology 
  • Use semantic HTML such as heading tags (<h1>, <h2>) 
  • Include alt text for images and avoid using images of text 
  • Follow WCAG 2.1 guide for color contrast  
  • Readable fonts and sizes (14-16px fonts) 
  • Descriptive link text (‘Learn about our new product line’ vs ‘Click here’) 
• Test your new designs to make sure they follow accessibility regulations, and review with your legal team.
• Schedule regular testing. Don’t set it and forget it—create a plan to monitor your creatives and test them regularly.
• Follow accessibility resources to stay up to date on all new regulations and best practices 

Tools such as Validity’s Design and Content module within Everest can help check for Link text, Alt text, and HTML issues, as well as rendering across different devices, including checking for issues with color blindness. Using a tool like this can help the QA process in making sure everything is accessible. 

Looking for more resources? 

Here are a few accessibility resources all marketers should see:

• • WCAG.com is a great guide for understanding accessibility compliance.  
  • Litmus offers accessibility testing, and also has a great example of how an email can sound to a screen reader. 
  • Everest offers a Design & Content tool that tests for color blindness, alt text, and link text. 

Or, for a step-by-step checklist to make your emails accessible, download Validity’s Email Accessibility Checklist.