The European Accessibility Act: What It Means for Email Marketing and How to Stay Ahead

In marketing, attention is everything. But if your emails aren’t accessible, you’re not just losing attention, you’re excluding potential customers. That’s why the European Accessibility Act (EAA), coming into effect in June 2025, should be on every marketer’s radar.

At Force24, we’ve always believed in making high-quality marketing automation simple, effective, and, most importantly, inclusive. So, what does this new regulation mean for email marketing, and how can you ensure compliance without creating extra headaches for your team? Let’s break it down.

What is the European Accessibility Act?

The EAA is designed to ensure digital products and services, including email, are accessible to all individuals, particularly those with disabilities. If your business operates in or serves customers within the EU, you’ll need to comply.

The good news? Accessibility isn’t just about compliance. It’s about making sure your messages reach and engage as many people as possible, without barriers.

What Does This Mean for Email Marketers?

The EAA sets clear guidelines to ensure digital communications, including email, are perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. In practical terms, this means your emails must:

• Be readable by screen readers – Ensure proper HTML structure and include descriptive alt text for images.
• Use sufficient colour contrast – Avoid text that blends into the background, making content unreadable for visually impaired users.
• Allow keyboard navigation – Ensure links and buttons can be accessed without a mouse.
• Follow a clear layout – Logical structure, consistent headings, and easy-to-follow content make for a better experience for all recipients.

How Force24 is Helping Marketers Stay Ahead

Marketers shouldn’t have to wrestle with code or worry about compliance every time they create an email. That’s why we’re continuously evolving our email editor to make accessibility a seamless part of the design process. We’ve already built features in Force24 that keep you ahead of this.:

• AI-Powered Attention and Compliance Checker: Our latest innovation ensures that every email meets accessibility standards and maintains high engagement levels by analysing structure, readability, and clarity.
• Automated AI Alt Text Writer: Every image in your email is automatically scanned, and our AI generates descriptive, contextually relevant alt text, ensuring every recipient, including those using screen readers, understands your message.
• Contrast Checkers: Ensure colour contrast meets accessibility standards before you hit send.
• Code Optimisation: Our platform automatically reviews email HTML to align with best practices for accessibility.
• Previews for Screen Readers: See how your email will be interpreted by assistive technology before it reaches inboxes.

The EAA is a Win for Marketers

This isn’t just about legal compliance, it’s about reinforcing what great marketers already know: keeping emails simple, clear, and accessible improves performance. Overly complex designs, unclear messaging, and hard-to-read layouts don’t just hinder accessibility; they lose attention.

By embracing these accessibility standards, we’re making emails more effective for everyone. The clearer and more readable your emails are, the better they perform. The EAA is a step forward, encouraging marketers to focus on clarity, simplicity, and inclusivity, everything that makes for better marketing. Email marketing has one job: to capture attention and convert it into action. If your emails aren’t accessible, you’re simply missing out.

The EAA is coming, and at Force24, we’re already ahead of it, so you can be too. If you want to know how our automation platform can make accessibility effortless, let’s chat. If you have any concerns about accessibility compliance or want to learn more about how Force24 can help, reach out to our expert teams or speak to our sales team for more information.