If one figure should make email marketers stop and think, it is 99.88%.
That is the percentage of emails with a serious or critical accessibility issue in the Email Markup Consortium’s (EMC) Accessibility Report 2026. Of the 376,348 emails analysed, just eight passed every automated accessibility check. Those eight emails came from only three brands.
This might sound like a problem for accessibility specialists. But it matters to anyone who cares about sender reputation, engagement and email performance.
After all, getting into the inbox is only part of the job. People also need to be able to read and use your emails.
Why accessibility belongs in the deliverability conversation
Deliverability depends on several factors, including domain reputation, email authentication (SPF, DKIM and DMARC), list hygiene and sending volume. An active, engaged audience also matters. Yahoo’s sender guidance, for example, recommends sending timely, relevant emails to people who want to receive them.
Accessibility helps make that engagement possible.
Small text, unclear links and a confusing reading order can make an email harder to use. For someone using a screen reader, these problems can create significant barriers. They can also make everyday tasks harder for people reading on a small screen or in bright sunlight.
If people struggle to understand your message or find the next step, they may be less likely to click or reply.
Accessibility should therefore be part of your wider email strategy. It helps you create messages that more people can read, understand and act on.
The three biggest problems, and how to fix them
The report highlights several common issues. Three stand out because they affect so many emails and can often be fixed at template level:
- Missing text direction: 97.41% of emails.
Thedirattribute tells the email app which direction the text should run. Without it, an English email opened in an app set to a language that reads from right to left may display incorrectly. - Missing language information within the email body: 95.66%.
Some email apps remove or ignore the language setting on the<html>element. Adding alangattribute to the content container helps screen readers identify the language and pronounce words correctly. - Layout tables without
role="presentation": 83.78%.
Tables are still widely used to build email layouts. Without this attribute, a screen reader may treat a layout table as a data table, making the content harder to follow.
The report also found that around 71% of emails had links without discernible text, 58% had insufficient colour contrast and nearly half failed the image alternative text check. These are issues that email platforms, templates and pre-send checks should help identify.
Three things you can do tomorrow
You can start improving your emails without waiting for a platform update.
1. Set the language and text direction in your templates
Ask whoever manages your templates to check that the main content container includes the correct lang and dir attributes.
For an email written in British English, that might mean lang="en-GB" and dir="ltr".
This small change addresses two of the most common issues in the report. Build it into your templates so you do not have to repeat the fix for every campaign.
2. Replace “click here” with descriptive link text
Make it clear what readers can expect when they follow a link.
Instead of “click here”, use wording such as “download the email accessibility checklist” or “register for the webinar”.
Descriptive links help everyone find the next step. They are especially useful for people using screen readers to navigate through a list of links.
3. Check the quality of your alt text
Adding an alt attribute is only the starting point. The text also needs to communicate the image’s purpose.
If an image contains important words, include that information in the alt text. If it acts as a link or button, make its function clear. Purely decorative images can use an empty alt attribute, alt="", so screen readers can skip them.
Even the eight emails that passed the report’s automated checks had issues when reviewed manually. Automated tools can check whether an alt attribute exists, but they cannot reliably judge whether the wording is useful.
Email apps still have some catching up to do
One of the report’s clearest findings is that no email app supported all 37 accessibility features tested.
Apple Mail on macOS led the way with support for 34 out of 37. Gmail supported 15 in its mobile apps and mobile webmail, and 17 in desktop webmail.
That means even a carefully built email can face limitations in the app where someone opens it.
Those limitations make a strong foundation even more valuable. Clear structure, readable text, good colour contrast and useful links all help people understand your message.
Start with your templates, check your content and make accessibility part of your regular pre-send review. Every improvement gives more people a better chance to engage with your next email.
