Accessible Email

Tips for getting your message to everyone

By Christina Clift
E-mail is an essential part of our everyday lives. We use it to send messages for both business and pleasure. We are bombarded with e-mails from businesses that we patron and some that are simply junk. 

For example, I receive lots of e-mails from businesses like Yankee Candle, Sam’s Club, Lyft, the NFB, business related messages, etc., but then there are those that once I read the subject line or sender that I automatically delete. As a person who is blind, I’ve had many positive experiences using this form of communication and some that were frustrating as hell. 

My interaction and level of frustration are normally aggravated by either a poorly communicated message or an inaccessible message. Some email are just junk, a message which should never have been sent in the first place. 

Email has only continued to flourish since the early 90’s and with more and more users and brands using it for business communications, it continues to be part of everyday life across all age groups. But, the question here is: Are they reaching their potential target group and most importantly are they accessible?  

What about the people who are blind?  How do people who have difficulties in hearing or understanding use your email?  Around 253 million people live with vision impairment worldwide, of which 36 million are blind and 217 million have moderate to severe vision impairment. 

There are close to 300 million people who are color blind. People with disabilities use the web and email as much as others, thanks to assistive technology and tools such as screen magnifiers, eye tracking systems, and advanced sip n puff devices. It is, therefore, necessary to design and code emails that everyone can receive and understand, regardless of any physical or cognitive disabilities. 

Email accessibility is the practice of designing your email content in such a way that it removes barriers for individuals with disabilities and lets them access, perceive and interact with the content. Accessible content is more readable, logical and more usable by everyone not just for people with disabilities. Good accessibility means good usability and good usability means good business.  

Here are some tips on how to BUILD and TEST your attractive yet accessible email design. Email designing and content plays a major role in making it accessible to everyone. To meet basic accessibility requirements, your email should have the following: 

 

• Maintain a Logical Reading Order - Establish a logical order and maintain a hierarchy of your email content. Irrespective of their screen size, your subscribers should be able to view the content of your email in a logical reading order. This will especially help people with cognitive disabilities and subscribers using screen readers. Also, a logical order will help users to pull out the key information quicker.
  
• Use Large and Readable Fonts - Keep visually challenged viewers in mind while setting the font style and size of your email. Fonts lesser than 14pt become hard to read on desktop or laptop screens. Keep the text evenly spaced and keep the size above 14pt so that it is easily readable. Minimize the use of multiple font styles and typefaces that make it appear condensed.
  
• Keep the Content Simple - Avoid flashy content and keep it as simple and short as possible. Get straight to the point and avoid using complicated layout and metaphors. Avoid justifying your copy and highlight the important areas of your message. 
  
• Use Enough White Space in your Copy - Reading paragraphs and heaps of content that are spaced together requires a lot of effort. It is important to give proper spacing to the text and create enough white space around the copy to make it easy to read. Set appropriate line heights to the text and add padding to the tables and images in your content. People who read your copy must be able to scan it.
  
• Use the Right Color Schemes - Complex colors can be confusing for those with color vision deficiencies. Consider how viewers perceive different colors and choose a color scheme accordingly. Use the right colors in email, maintaining the basic color arrangement of dark text on light backgrounds and light text on dark backgrounds to ensure the content is easily distinguishable.
  
• Include a Text-Only Option - Your emails should have both plain text and HTML options while signing up. While the HTML emails will load the images, the text-only email will load only the text and let the users read the email comfortably. A plain-text version of your email can be of help especially to those using screen readers since they provide only the core content of your emails.
  
• Make the Clickable Links Prominent - Keep the clickable links large and visible, especially for those who have issues in controlling a mouse with precision. Keep the link differentiated from the images and make sure the link text describes what’s in the link. Tell your readers what to expect from the link by writing contextual link text. Instead of just saying “Click Here,” make it more precise by saying “Click Here to View the Products!” or simply: “View the Products!”
  
• Keep the Email Design Responsive - Keep the design responsive so that it is compatible with mobile devices, screen readers, and all other major devices. Maintain proper text-to-image ratio and highlight the main message so that the message is conveyed clearly, irrespective of the device and email client in which the subscribers view it.
  
• Use Precise Subject Lines - The subject line is the first and the most critical attribute of your email. Keep the subject lines brief and to the point. The subject lines should give the subscribers clarity in knowing what’s inside your email. Clear subject lines not only make your emails easy to access but also improve the overall subscriber engagement. 
  
• Use Semantic Tags - Header elements in emails such as , and ensure hierarchy to subscribers using screen readers, who may not be able to scan through your emails otherwise. Instead of using style statements like bold text and colors, use semantic tags such as

  ,

  and that will identify and differentiate the important sections of your content.
  

• Use Proper Alt Text for Images - Include proper alt text for the images in your email to describe the image when a subscriber cannot view your images. Make sure the text clearly describes the image. Sending images will be invisible to blind readers. Make sure that you include a text alternative.

Attachments are also often included with e-mails. All of the work you did to make it accessible, can be undone by attaching inaccessible files to your message. 

For example, if you are sending a flyer about an upcoming event, you could put the same information in your message. Remembering of course, to describe any images. Also, you can let the recipient know there is an attachment in the e-mail by including it in the subject or body of the message. 

Finally, it’s important to ensure that file names of attached documents make since and match their intended purpose. So, instead of have an attached file labeled as “11142019.doc,” you could label it is “holiday flyer.”  

While it does not guarantee that they are 100 percent accessible, these tips will go a long way in getting you there. Unfortunately, differences in operating systems, advancement of assistive technology being used, and that every person’s needs for accessibility are unique to them thus, this will sometimes led to differing results. 

If you follow these simple steps you will be one step closer in ensuring that individuals with disabilities like me have a positive experience if we choose to read them. Now that you know how to create an accessible e-mail message, I look forward to a more positive experience the next time I open my inbox.

State Rehabilitation Council Report

VR making changes in Tennessee

By Christina Clift, MCIL
Members of the State Rehabilitation Council held their quarterly meeting in Smyrna at the Tennessee Rehabilitation Center from November 6-7, 2019.  On Wednesday State Rehabilitation Council (SRC) members participated in the VR101 training and discussed the role our council plays in ensuring that Tennesseans with disabilities receive high-quality vocational rehabilitation services that will assist them to become employed.

The Department of Rehabilitation Services in order to modernize their case management system is currently switching from Trims to Aware.  Although clients will not notice a significant difference, the counselors will. 
Trims uses numbers to categorize where individuals are in the vocational rehabilitation process.  It used numbers like status 10 to signify that a person is in the eligibility process and is gathering more information, while a status 26 means that a person’s case is closed.

There are lots of other numbers that signify other milestones in a person’s case and some numbers that were created to help categorize other milestones.  But Trims is confusing and complicated to maneuver, and doesn’t tell the story of where a client is with ease.

Aware is the modern system being rolled out and it eliminates the need for status numbers, instead it uses terminology like eligibility, applicant, employment, etc.  The roll-out is about 25 percent complete. 
By changing to the modernized case management system, the Department of Rehabilitation Services and their staff will be one step closer in being able to gather data, communicate with clients, and step into the 21st century.

On Thursday, the meeting agenda was packed full of updates not only from the Department of Rehabilitation Services, but also from Synergy Consultants and the staff of the Tennessee Rehabilitation Center.  The election for new officers, discussion about the annual report, work on the combined state plan, and committee work were also scheduled.  So it was going to be a jam-packed day and we all hoped to just stay on schedule since rain was expected and we all still had to travel home.

On Thursday the SRC kicked the morning off with a presentation by Synergy Consultants.  They were hired in 2018 by the state of Tennessee to evaluate the viability and effectiveness of the Community Tennessee Rehabilitation Centers and make recommendations on how to modernize and transform them for the future. 
In putting their report together, the consultants conducted both an internal and external examination of each facility.  The Community Tennessee Rehabilitation Centers (CTRC) were established in 1965 to provide training opportunities for individuals with disabilities in rural communities across the state.

The Community Tennessee Rehabilitation Centers are a part of the Tennessee Facility Network of Vocational Rehabilitation Services.  There are seventeen Community Tennessee Rehabilitation Centers strategically located throughout the state.

The CTRCs provide rehabilitation services for individuals and employers in their surrounding areas. The CTRC’s are funded with federal and local dollars.

The CTRCs offer the following rehabilitation services for eligible individuals: Comprehensive vocational evaluation, Employee development services, and Community employment services. The CTRCs offer the following services to employers: Market ability, Recruitment, Industry outsourcing, Internships, and Services to injured workers.

They are located in Camden, Clarksville, Cleveland, Cookeville, Columbia, Dyersberg, Elizabethton, Franklin, Gallatin, Greeneville, Manchester, Maryville, Murfreesboro, Paris, Shelbyville, Union City, and Winchester.

While some of these areas have changed little since they were started, other areas have experienced significant growth.  Some examples of areas that were once rural and are now more urban areas include Clarksville and Murfreesboro.

The consultants examined the changes in population and shifts in Industry trends. The SRC will work hand-in-hand with the Department of Rehabilitation Services and the CTRCs to ensure the development of a unique path forward for each CTRC. 

Public outreach and evolvement in the next steps forward will help ensure a smooth transition for the community, impact to relationships with employers and businesses, as well as the individuals with disabilities they serve.

DRS plans to work on five key priorities which are set forth in their strategic plan.  They include: Data-driven performance, Modernization of systems, processes and services, talent management, communication both internally and externally and service delivery.  This is in-line with DRS mission to create a seamless customer journey for all.  The overarching theme is “One DHS”.

Another priority that the DRS plans to work towards is assisting with Governor Lee’s goal to increase participation and services to the fifteen distressed counties in Tennessee.  The goal is to increase participation by 25 percent over the next year. The 15 distressed counties in Tennessee are Lake, Lauderdale, Hardeman, McNairy, Perry, Wayne, Jackson, Clay, Grundy, Bledsoe, Fentress, Morgan, Scott, Hancock, and Cocke.
Later that afternoon the SRC began discussion on the development of the annual report and combined state plan.  Both the annual report and combined state plan will use the information gathered earlier this year during the Comprehensive Statewide Needs Assessment.

The SRC’s seven key recommendations which will be reflected in this year’s report.  They include:

• Talent Management - Staff hiring, training and retention, including addressing adequate compensation to improve recruitment and retention of Master's Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors.
• Communication and Responsiveness - Communication, responsiveness and response time, including communications within VR, with clients, with CRP's, with WIOA Partners and with the public.
• Timeliness of Services - Timeliness of services, i.e., improve process and timeliness of assistive technology services, better utilize various levels of staff to expedite the provision of services.
• Customer Engagement - Focus on encouraging active participation by customers throughout the VR process to ensure customers are empowered to practice informed choice in the development of their Individualized Plan for Employment.
• Transportation - Address transportation barriers based on individual client need to ensure clients are able to fully participate in services necessary to achieve their employment objectives.
• Community Partners and Resources - Identify and develop community resources to ensure both staff and customers have a clearer understanding of the services available through WIOA partners and other community agencies.
• Pre-Employment Transition Services - Monitor and improve the provision of Pre-Employment Transition Services to ensure VR is meeting the needs of students with disabilities statewide and is meeting the requirement to expend 15% of federal funds for this service.

Finally, the State Rehabilitation Council (SRC) held elections for new officers.  These individuals will serve for the next two years.

The new chairperson is Christina Clift, the vice chair is Lee Brown, and the secretary is Susan Johnson.  These individuals along with all of the members of the council would like to invite any person who is a current DRS client, community rehabilitation provider or employer to attend our meetings.

The next meeting is scheduled for February 13, 2020 in Nashville.  For more information about the SRC, our meetings, and how you can become a member please call Christina Clift at (901) 726-6404 Ext. 108.  You can also send an e-mail to srctennessee@gmail.com.