Emails

Formatting

When using formatting in emails; use bold instead of italics or underlining.

Don’t use colour alone to make a point e.g. "priority items in red".

Ensure sufficient colour contrast between font colour and background colour.

Use a sans-serif font e.g. Arial, as it is more accessible than Times New Roman and other serif fonts.

Use at least 12 point - 14 point .

Avoid the use of moving, scrolling or flashing text.

Ensure all links are meaningful hyper text and not naked URLs.

Use left align not right align or justified text.

Signatures

Always include contact details.

It is good practice to give two methods of contact e.g. phone number and email or email and postal address.

Use text and not an image of text for your name and contact details.

Make sure to add alt text to any logos.

Images

If adding an image to an email make sure it has alt text.

To add alt text  - right click on an image - select format picture - layout and properties icon - select alt text  

University of Mississippi guide to adding alt text in Outlook

Attachments

All attachments, in formats such as Word and PDFs, should also be accessible. 

Where possible avoid PDFs and use Word or HTML instead as they are more accessible.

Plain English

In order to make your email as accessible as possible use clear English and avoid the use of jargon.

All abbreviations should be written in full when used for the first time in each email.

Further Guidance

AbilityNet has helpful guidance on creating accessible emails;