Webservices has updated the Mailster templates to meet WCAG AA accessibility standards, but the content you add also needs to be accessible. Keep the following in mind:
- Add alt text to all images (screen readers rely on alt text to describe images to users who are blind or have low vision).
- Transcribe text-heavy images
- Flyers or images containing text must have that information repeated in plain text below the image.
- Use descriptive link text
- Our templates have default buttons with text like “Read More” or “Learn More,” but editing these to be more specific gives users context about where the link is taking them.
- Understand newsletters’ accessibility limitations
- The HTML required for email formatting is outdated, and this carries over to the web version of newsletters. Our current templates meet baseline automated accessibility checks, but newsletters have structural limitations that can make them difficult to navigate with assistive technology.
- If your newsletter contains critical information, we strongly recommend publishing a supplementary webpage rather than relying solely on the newsletter’s web version.
Please note that newsletters published or sent before April 24th are considered archived material and are exempt from the new accessibility requirements under the DOJ web accessibility rule. These newsletters will have “archive” in their URL to indicate their status. Going forward, new newsletters will also move to archive URLs after one month and links will automatically redirect.