What have we found to expand your email knowledge today?

Here are a few of our favourite links from across the email and business world, carefully curated just for you:

Find of the week ⭐

We all know the power of a solid carousel as an information, awareness and growth tool.

But finding out how to create something that literally stops folks in their tracks is a tough feat.

Well, a close friend to our community, the legendary Sandra Macele, is hosting a Masterclass on the 26th of May about how to create carousels that do just that!

And, if you don’t believe us, here’s an example of one she created that drove nearly half a million impressions on LinkedIn alone 🤯

That’s some serious clout, and we all know that a solid carousel is a massive email driver for audience growth, for your lead magnets and your brand!

DM Sandra here to get the details and book your spot.

We’re also constantly on the lookout for new resources, news, tools and links, so hit us up if you’ve got something valuable to feature!

Every time you hit that publish or send button, your email lands in inboxes belonging to people with vastly different abilities.

Some of your subscribers navigate their inbox with a screen reader. Others can't distinguish between the red and green in your holiday campaign. Heck, some experience sensory overload from flashing GIFs while others struggle with small, tightly-packed text because of dyslexia or low vision.

This isn't a small, niche group either.

1.3 billion people worldwide live with a significant disability. That's 16% of the global population.

One in six of your subscribers, statistically speaking, experiences some form of barrier when interacting with digital content.

And these aren't just numbers, folks. These are real people on your list. And yet, according to the Email Markup Consortium's research, 99.89% of HTML emails contain serious or critical accessibility issues.

That means that nearly every email being sent today is, in some way, broken for a significant portion of its audience.

Today, we aim to help our community turn those stats into actions.

We get it. You've got open rates to chase, revenue targets to hit, and a send calendar that isn't slowing down, so accessibility can wind up feeling like "one more thing."

But accessible emails aren't just the right thing to do (they absolutely are), they also perform better.

Emails designed with accessibility in mind can deliver up to 18% higher engagement rates.

When you write clearer copy, use better contrast, structure your content with proper headings, and make your CTAs easy to find and click, you're not just helping subscribers with disabilities…you're making a better email for literally everyone.

That person skimming your email in bright sunlight? They benefit from high contrast, too. The exec reading on their watch? They need concise, well-structured content. The subscriber opening with images off? They need solid alt text to know what's going on.

Accessibility improvements are universal improvements (and we’ll die on this hill).

You don't need to become a WCAG expert overnight, but there are foundational things you can implement right now that will meaningfully improve the experience for all of your readers.

Here's where to focus:

1. Write clear, concise copy.

Keep your language simple. Break content into sections with proper headings (formatted as actual headings, not just bigger bold text), and set line spacing to around 150%. Use left-aligned text (no justification and avoid too many centred paragraphs of body copy).

2. Make your alt text meaningful.

Every image needs an alt attribute. Not "image1.png"…an actual description of what the image conveys. Screen readers rely on this entirely, guys. And remember: if images are blocked (which still happens), alt text is all your subscriber sees.

3. Use accessible fonts and sizing.

Stick with sans-serif options like Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, or Open Sans (say we hypocrites using Monsterrat). Body text should be at least 16px and avoid all-caps for anything longer than a word or two (screen readers can misinterpret them as acronyms, and they're harder to read for people with dyslexia).

4. Get your colour contrast right.

Text and background need sufficient contrast. The standard is a 4.5:1 ratio for normal text. Also, don't rely on colour alone to convey meaning (like using only red/green to indicate right/wrong). Try pairing colours with text labels or icons.

5. Make links and CTAs obvious.

Use descriptive link text ("Read the full accessibility guide" instead of "Click here"). Make buttons large enough to tap easily and underline links so they're distinguishable without relying on colour alone.

6. Be careful with animations.

Keep GIFs under three frames per second, and limit yourself to one animated element per screen. People with photosensitive epilepsy are directly at risk from flashing content.

7. Structure your HTML properly.

Set the language attribute, use role="presentation" on layout tables, and ensure your email's reading order makes sense when linearised. If you're using a modern email builder like Stripo, a lot of this is handled automatically.

For a deeper dive into each of these, Stripo's complete accessibility guide is also an excellent resource worth bookmarking.

You don't need to eyeball this stuff (is that a pun?). There are solid tools available that'll audit your emails before they go out:

Bookmark a couple of these and build them into your pre-send checklist, but don’t neglect this aspect of your email mix, guys.

And one more thing worth noting…

Accessibility means your emails should be reachable by everyone, so make sure everyone actually gets your stuff by adding a verification layer to your strategy.

Remember our friends at Bouncer? They help you keep your list clean, so your accessible emails actually land where they should. As part of their contribution to the email community, they’re giving everyone +25% extra credits, with 10% off your first batch of credits until May 31st here.

There’s a heap around regional legalities and complying with those, but we’re not going to dive into that today.

This article is one of our go-tos for exactly that, so add this one to the bookmarks tab while you’re at it.

Here's one more thing worth noting: if you're producing podcasts or video content to support your email strategy (and many of you are), accessibility applies there too.

Captions, transcripts, audio descriptions…yeah, these aren't nice-to-haves. They're now part of the same obligation. Your entire content ecosystem should be accessible end-to-end (not just in the inbox).

We could wrap this up by saying accessibility is "a best practice" or "a nice thing to have on your checklist”, but honestly? We think it's bigger than that.

Email accessibility isn't just a requirement. It's an obligation of a good email sender.

When you build emails that work for everyone, regardless of ability, device, or circumstance, you're not just ticking a compliance box.

You're showing readers that every single subscriber matters to you.

And honestly? That's what separates great email senders from everyone else. It's not just about the strategy, those clever subject lines, or the segmentation.

You want to show that you respect the humans on the other end of that send button.

So this Global Accessibility Awareness Day, we're challenging you: pick one thing from today's article and implement it in your very next email. Just one, and start there.

Because your subscribers deserve emails that work for them. All of them.

*P.S. No lighthearted stuff today! We hope that doesn’t disappoint, but this topic is serious and close to us, so we thought we’d keep it respectful, but back to our usual unhinged shenanigans next time!

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