Why email?
It might be easy to overlook email marketing as spam, but the last few years have shown just how powerful a medium email can be to get information out quickly to users. During the early days of the COVID lockdowns, nearly every company turned to email to keep their customers up-to-date on store closings and schedule changes. While much can be discussed (and has been discussed at length!) about the many challenges companies faced when they suddenly had to face a digital-only storefront, I was appalled at how many emails flew into my inbox that were not even remotely accessible.
One email from a retail brand I received was a letter from a CEO discussing important changes in how this brand was doing business in light of the lockdowns. This included store closing information, associate safety, and new COVID protocols. This letter was ENTIRELY an image. The alt text read “Storebrand.com”.
Look, many brands sent emails during those first few weeks of the pandemic, and many of them were absolutely great – full of live text, good alt text, and links that went to accessible websites! But three years later, I’m still mad about that one email.
This blog largely focuses on my own experiences, findings, and tests, and I welcome questions, discussions, and further investigations. I don’t pretend to know everything, if you find something is out of line, please kindly let me know and I would be happy to look further into it.
My name is Sarah Gallardo, and I’m a lead email developer and email accessibility specialist. I have been coding emails for over twelve years and have been talking about accessible emails for over six years. I received my CPACC in 2020 and am working towards my Trusted Tester certification, hopefully aiming to receive that sometime later in 2023.
My personal connection to accessibility started in 2014 when my youngest daughter was diagnosed with dyslexia. She was lucky to have access to YES! Colorado – a self-advocacy group focused on students with dyslexia, and as she learned to navigate her experience as a dyslexic student, we both became active in the dyslexia advocacy movement that has rebuilt literacy learning in the US over the last ten years.
This advocacy work naturally started me down the road of testing some of my email files and really scrutinizing what was being said in the email community about accessibility. I found that many of the same myths I was fighting in my daughter’s IEP meetings were popping up in conversations with coworkers and clients about accessibility. My interest led me to work with clients that had accessibility teams of their own and I was able to push my knowledge and understanding into broader accessibility concepts.
About Me