Accessibility testing in Litmus

Maximize the impact of every email with content that is accessible to your subscribers. Litmus lets you accessibility check and remediate every email for elements that affect the way your subscribers with cognitive or visual impairments experience them. Whether you're in Builder or Previews & QA, you have tools on hand to welcome everyone!

Visual impairment filters

Visual impairment filters allow you to use four color vision deficiency filters to check how your email displays for subscribers with visual impairments. The filters are available in Builder, Previews & QA, and Proof so this accessibility can be reviewed by most Litmus users at any point in development.

Visit our Visual Impairment Filters resource for detailed information on activating the filters wherever you're working in Litmus.

Automatic accessibility checks

Litmus automatically scans your email to check 40+ accessibility areas and reports results, as well as provides guidance, on any discovered issues. Check in Builder as you code or in Previews & QA as you test to help ensure your email meets your subscribers' needs.

Check in Builder

Find automatic accessibility checks in the Builder window in the QA checks tab. After selecting the tab, Litmus will fill in your checks in a few seconds. Your check will present a total of failed and passed checks. Choose any alert to expand an issue. Litmus shows the HTML error which allows you to find it in Builder to remediate your code. Select View in HTML to jump directly to the code.

Check in Previews & QA

After Previews & QA updates, the Litmus checklist provides you detailed information from Previews to Spam testing. Select Accessibility in the left menu to jump directly to your checks. Depending on how many previews you have selected, it may take several seconds for them to fully load and for your accessibility checks to finish running.

Just below your Visual Impairment Filters, you'll see your automated accessibility checks with a summary of results at the top and details on any errors below that. Select any item to see information on the HTML that needs attention. Each issue noted comes with links to external help articles for additional information.

NVDA screen reader preview

We integrate with NVDA for our screen reader. NVDA supports over 80 languages. Be sure to use the correct language HTML attribute in your code. The [lang] attribute helps screen readers accurately transcribe your message by indicating the language used to draft your email. Our transcription version supports English language only at this time.

Our How does your email sound? blog post can give you more information on the benefits of screen reader accessibility for your subscribers.

Why accessibility checks matter

Creating accessible emails can seem overwhelming. Litmus accessibility checks help make the technical side easier for developers. Every code improvement can have an immeasurable impact on subscribers. Here's a short list of how your efforts help!

• Alt-text: Alt-text helps screen readers accurately describe images within your email.
• Language: Without a language HTML attribute, screen readers will assume the email is in the subscriber’s selected default screen reader language. If your email is not in that language, the screen reader may not accurately transcribe your message.
• Content-type: Specifying the content type is important for screen readers as it allows them to accurately identify special characters. The most common content type is UTF. 
• Heading hierarchy: Maintain a consistent outline of your email content for assistive technologies by always using heading tags in a logical sequence. This enables screen readers to efficiently navigate an email and begin reading at any point the subscriber chooses.
• Text justification: Many people with cognitive disabilities have trouble with blocks of text that are justifiedor aligned to both the left and the right margins.
• Table-roles: Specifying a table role is important so screen readers can identify when your table only serves a design or a layout purpose and it will not read every column and row cell aloud.
• Visual Impairment Filters: Ensure all of your content is optimized for your audience, including those with color vision deficiency.
• Screen reader transcript and audio recording: Listen to a recording of your email and also view a transcript in Previews & QA to ensure subscribers who use screen readers have an optimal experience. This feature is the first of its kind and exclusive to the Litmus platform!