WWF has been a Badsender customer since 2021. We recently offered to diagnose the accessibility of their emails and update their HTML template based on the results obtained. For the past 4 years, we have supported them in their choice and migration to the Selligent/Marigold platform, as well as in their email production via the LePatron email builder. Our expertise now covers the writing of marketing automation emails and newsletters, the creation of a preference center, and deliverability issues. In short, we're their point of reference for everything to do with emailing and CRM.
This article is freely available.
It took time and expertise!
This month, thanks to our customer-sponsors: Actito, Cardif, BPI, CMI, Cegeka, Metro, Zenride, Mews, Clarins, Les Editions Croque Futur, Lefebvre Dalloz, Les Echos, FFT. They enable us to publish free content. Thanks to them, Badsender is fulfilling its mission of educating the French-speaking emailing and CRM ecosystem to promote responsible email.
With over 10,000 monthly readers, if only 1% became customers, we'd continue this mission for a long time to come! Become a customer and benefit from our expertise while supporting the production of open knowledge.
How did we do it?
We analyzed two emails created with the LePatron email builder and distributed via the Selligent platform. These emails were evaluated according to our analysis grid comprising 57 accessibility criteria.
Our email accessibility evaluation grid :
There is no standard for email accessibility, as there is for the web with the RGAA (Référentiel Général d'Amélioration de l'Accessibilité). It's a gap we'd like to fill (but that's another subject ;).
To fill this gap and still educate our community about email accessibility issues, we at Badsender have developed our own grid inspired by web standards.
Our grid is made up of 57 criteria. Like web reference systems, they are organized into themes Information: consultation, colors, data, mandatory elements, images, links, navigation, information presentation, copywriting, information structure and tables.
Each criterion therefore includes the thematic to which it belongs, therule statementhis objectivehis level of importance (critical, medium, low) and the team in charge implementation (design, integrator, copywriting, marketing team).
Main results of the WWF email accessibility diagnosis
- The "Newsletter" email received 27 out of 57 rules respected.
- The "Product" email received 29 out of 57 rules respected.
For each email, the grid is filled in and an overall summary is produced for greater clarity.



The analysis of the two emails highlights recurring anomalies which have been compiled in a summary document and prioritized according to their importance: critical, medium or low. This organization makes it possible to identify at a glance the roadmap to follow.

Below is a selection of representative criteria. We can't detail all 57 criteria evaluated, so we've chosen the most relevant from our work with WWF 😉
Some texts are not in HTML but in images
- Importance Review
- Category Information presentation
- Manager : Studio Design, Copywriters
- Objective To ensure that all text content can be browsed and read easily by a screen reader. Ensure that information is accessible even when images are disabled. In particular, titles and buttons
This is one of the most frequent errors we observe in our diagnoses.
HTML structure often lacks semantics
- Importance : Review
- Theme: Structuring information
- Manager : Technical team, Editors
- Objective Enable screen readers to distinguish text hierarchies: headings, subheadings, paragraphs, bulleted lists, etc.
The color contrasts frequently prove insufficient
- Importance : Review
- Theme: Colors
- Manager: Studio Design
- Objective: Optimize text legibility by ensuring sufficient contrast between foreground and background elements. Aim for a ratio of at least 4.5:1 for standard text and 3:1 for large text, in accordance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
This is one of the major errors we most frequently observe in our email accessibility diagnostics. This point is often the subject of debate concerning the graphic charter. In fact, the colors used are part of the graphic charter which, in principle, should have been designed with accessibility criteria in mind, "in principle".
This puts into tension the aesthetic decisions made by a small group of people and the objective reality of the contrast measures required for accessibility.
The tag is not correctly filled in
- Importance : Average
- Themes Mandatory elements
- Manager: Technical team
- Objective: This is the title of your HTML document, and must be present for the document to be valid. In the event that the online version of the e-mail is consulted, the browser tab proposes a relevant title. It is displayed in the tab, allowing users to quickly visualize the page and providing screen reader users with a quick introduction to the page.

The images do not always have suitable text alternatives
- Importance : Average
- Themes : Images
- Manager Editors
- Objective Provide a text alternative that can be read by a screen reader on useful visuals. Do not provide one for decorative visuals.
This is also a common mistake. The question remains as to which images are considered useful or decorative. This may seem straightforward at first glance, but debates can sometimes arise on this issue.


Some texts (titles) are in ALL CAPS
- Importance : Average
- Themes Information presentation
- Manager Studio design, copywriters
- Objective : Screen readers are not very good at distinguishing capital letters from abbreviations.
A common error we see in our diagnostics: titles, sometimes more than 2 or 3 lines long, entirely in uppercase. If you still wish to capitalize a short title, do so by applying a style (CSS) and not by typing it in.
And many other evaluated criteria:
- Typography is not always adapted to the needs of visually impaired users.
- Avoid all-caps text
- The wording of CTAs (Call To Action) sometimes lacks clarity and generates non-explicit links (e.g.: to find out more, click here).
- Reading direction
- ...
Once the accesibility email diagnostics have been carried out, what happens next?
Three main areas for improvement have been identified:
- Technical template optimization
- Setting up a production methodology
- Team training
Technical template optimization
A revision of the HTML code was necessary to reinforce semantics, improve language attribute management and ensure better compatibility with screen readers. The WWF HTML template implemented in the LePatron email builder has been optimized for this purpose.
Several accessibility issues have been corrected:
- The title tag
- Language declaration
- Semantic markup
- The presence of at least one entry-level qualification (h1)
- The addition of a "level" option on blocks or elements with titles to ensure that the appropriate semantic tag is used in the HTML code.

Setting up a production methodology
Implementing systematic processes for managing accessible content (text alternatives, color contrast, content hierarchy) will significantly improve email quality. Teams have access to the analysis grid and can refer to it as a checklist. In addition, the document contains a list of online tools and resources, so they can carry out more in-depth checks if required.
Team training
A program of awareness-raising and training in digital and email accessibility best practices will enhance the skills of production teams and ensure that these issues are taken into account on a daily basis.
These improvements will enable WWF to move towards compliance with legal obligations while offering a better user experience to all its recipients.
Conclusion
The major advantage of this diagnostic is that it generates a clear roadmap of anomalies to be corrected, organized in order of priority. It identifies precisely which team needs to intervene for each correction. This approach is both rapid and particularly effective. Don't hesitate to contact us if you would like to benefit from such a diagnosis!




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