Email accessibility

Prefers Accessible Content

Accessible content can benefit everyone. Let your colleagues and correspondents know that you prefer accessible content by setting the Prefers Accessible Content setting in your Accessibility Settings.

Accessibility checker

Before sending an email, you can run the Accessibility Checker within Outlook. Automated accessibility tests are good for identifying technical barriers in the code, such as:

• Images without alt text: Automated testing tools can aggregate a list of text alternatives in content and identify images that do not have alt text. Be sure to check that all of the text alternatives are appropriate for the images, and mark images as decorative as appropriate.
• Low contrast text and background combinations: While testing tools can test colors set in the HTML and CSS of a website, such as color of main text or text on buttons. They cannot test for contrast within images on a site. Banner images, flyers, charts, and other embedded images will require manual testing.
• Inaccessible form or table formats: The labels for form elements like text fields and checkboxes must be associated with those elements in the code, and automated tools can flag when a label doesn’t have an associated form element, and vice versa. They can also flag common barriers with tables, such as tables missing a table header or overusing spanned cells for layout

Learn more

To learn more about the Prefers accessible content setting and Accessibility checker, visit Microsoft’s Make your Outlook email accessible to people with disabilities guide. You can also review the Rules for the Accessibility Checker to learn more about the errors, warnings, and tips flagged by Microsoft’s Accessibility Checker.

Text styling

To support legibility of text, use a sans-serif font that is at least 12 pt font size so it can be easily read. Avoid overusing styles like italics, bold, and underlining. These styles can reduce legibility and interfere with screen readers.

Headings and lists

Label your content with descriptive headings and apply built-in heading styles. This helps users scan content for the message and supports screen reader navigation through the content. Apply headings in ascending order, starting with one h1 (Heading 1), followed by h2 (Heading 2), and so on, without skipping levels.

Using lists can also help organize and simplify information. Use built-in list styles to create bulleted lists for a general list of items or numbered lists when the order of list items is important. Avoid using plain text numbers, letters, hyphens, or other symbols to create lists, as these will not communicate list structure to screen reader users.

Tables

Avoid using tables in emails. Consider summarizing data in paragraphs or lists. If you must use a table, consider the following best practices, and use the Accessibility Checker to check your work.

• • Avoid using fixed-width tables, as those create barriers for people who magnify the content when the content cannot reflow or grow in size
  • Use simple tables with as few rows and columns as possible
  • Apply table headers and other built-in table style options

Do not merge or split table cells

Color contrast

Make sure that text and graphical content have sufficient color contrast, and that none of your information relies on color alone to communicate meaning. Text (both in your email message and in any attached documents) must have a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1. Text that is bold or larger than 18 pt must have a contrast ratio of at least 3:1. You can check contrast with a tool like the WebAIM Contrast Checker.

If there is meaningful color in your content, such as red text to signify a warning, always combine that color with symbols, labels, or other styling to ensure that message is conveyed to all users.