RE: [WSG] Accessibility and HTML Emails
Yes, I love the accessible nature of a long string of non-descript asterisks instead of a simple horizontal rule element. Thanks, Tatham Oddie blog: http://tath.am/ tath.am au mob: +61 414 275 989, us cell: +1 213 422 7068, skype: tathamoddie, landline: +61 2 8011 3982, fax: +61 2 9475 5172 current project: http://tixi.com.au/ tixi.com.au - Ticketing without the dramas -Original Message- From: li...@webstandardsgroup.org [mailto:li...@webstandardsgroup.org] On Behalf Of Felix Miata Sent: Thursday, 29 October 2009 11:28 AM To: wsg@webstandardsgroup.org Subject: Re: [WSG] Accessibility and HTML Emails On 2009/10/28 17:37 (GMT-0400) kris wright composed: email clients vary wildly in their HTML rendering capabilities, and on occasion actually modify your HTML code makes things even more confusing. Email is supposed to be text communication. Web pages are web pages. If you want your email recipients to reliably see web pages nearly as you intend for them to look, have them open them in their web browsers instead of their email clients. Make the email 100% plain text only, and provide in the email a URL to the HTML (and CSS) formatted version on your web host. Most HTML email that arrives here is redirected to the bit bucket, since HTML in email is a highly favored spammer malware delivery method. Whatever HTML email doesn't reach the bit bucket is seen as (big enough to read) plain text anyway, courtesy of my email app, which has been directed to show all messages only as plain text. -- A patriot without religion . . . is as great a paradox, as an honest man without the fear of God. . . . 2nd U.S. President, John Adams Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/ http://fm.no-ip.com/ *** List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: mailto:memberh...@webstandardsgroup.org memberh...@webstandardsgroup.org *** *** List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: memberh...@webstandardsgroup.org ***
RE: [WSG] Accessibility and HTML Emails
Campaign Monitor, the company behind the ESP have more great resources on their own site as well: http://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/ I highly recommend all of their content because I know there's a huge amount of effort that goes into all the associated research and cross-client testing. Thanks, Tatham Oddie blog: http://tath.am/ tath.am au mob: +61 414 275 989, us cell: +1 213 422 7068, skype: tathamoddie, landline: +61 2 8011 3982, fax: +61 2 9475 5172 current project: http://tixi.com.au/ tixi.com.au - Ticketing without the dramas From: li...@webstandardsgroup.org [mailto:li...@webstandardsgroup.org] On Behalf Of S.R. Emerson Sent: Thursday, 29 October 2009 9:06 AM To: wsg@webstandardsgroup.org Subject: Re: [WSG] Accessibility and HTML Emails You can have a look at The Email Standards Project http://www.email-standards.org/ for information. Also, if you want to build a set of guidelines that will work in the future, you might want to read these two: Microsoft to ignore web standards in Outlook 2010 - enough is enough http://www.email-standards.org/blog/entry/microsoft-to-ignore-web-standards / http://www.email-standards.org/blog/entry/microsoft-to-ignore-web-standards/ Microsoft responds to our call for standards support http://www.email-standards.org/blog/entry/microsoft-respond-to-our-call-for -standards-support/ http://www.email-standards.org/blog/entry/microsoft-respond-to-our-call-for- standards-support/ S. Emerson Accrete Web Solutions http://www.accretewebsolutions.ca http://www.accretewebsolutions.ca On Twitter: http://twitter.com/accrete http://twitter.com/accrete *** List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: memberh...@webstandardsgroup.org *** *** List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: memberh...@webstandardsgroup.org ***
[WSG] Accessibility and HTML Emails
Hi everyone, I work in a small web shop in Canada. We have recently been discussing HTML formatted emails, and accessibility standards or best practices. We have been struggling a little bit, as we often work with WCAG 1 and 2 as baseline standards for web page accessibility. However, WCAG standards, like most of what the W3C produces, is by definition intended to be applied to content on the World Wide Web. Adding in the fact that email clients vary wildly in their HTML rendering capabilities, and on occasion actually modify your HTML code makes things even more confusing. I think there is a lot of valuable and reusable guidance from WCAG 12 that could be applied to HTML emails (color contrast, content logical when linearized, alternative text, etc), and there are a lot of HTML email best practices on sites such as Campaign Monitor. Using these, we're in the process of trying to assemble our own set of guidelines, accepting the reality that HTML is here to stay in our organization, so we might as well make it as accessible as possible. Does anybody have any recommended best practices or standards with regards to HTML emails that they would be willing to share? Saying no HTML emails is an easy way out for us, but it's not a realistic option. Thanks! Kris *** List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: memberh...@webstandardsgroup.org ***
Re: [WSG] Accessibility and HTML Emails
You can have a look at The Email Standards Project http://www.email-standards.org/ for information. Also, if you want to build a set of guidelines that will work in the future, you might want to read these two: Microsoft to ignore web standards in Outlook 2010 - enough is enough http://www.email-standards.org/blog/entry/microsoft-to-ignore-web-standards/ Microsoft responds to our call for standards support http://www.email-standards.org/blog/entry/microsoft-respond-to-our-call-for-standards-support/ S. Emerson Accrete Web Solutions http://www.accretewebsolutions.ca On Twitter: http://twitter.com/accrete *** List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: memberh...@webstandardsgroup.org ***
Re: [WSG] Accessibility and HTML Emails
On 2009/10/28 17:37 (GMT-0400) kris wright composed: email clients vary wildly in their HTML rendering capabilities, and on occasion actually modify your HTML code makes things even more confusing. Email is supposed to be text communication. Web pages are web pages. If you want your email recipients to reliably see web pages nearly as you intend for them to look, have them open them in their web browsers instead of their email clients. Make the email 100% plain text only, and provide in the email a URL to the HTML (and CSS) formatted version on your web host. Most HTML email that arrives here is redirected to the bit bucket, since HTML in email is a highly favored spammer malware delivery method. Whatever HTML email doesn't reach the bit bucket is seen as (big enough to read) plain text anyway, courtesy of my email app, which has been directed to show all messages only as plain text. -- A patriot without religion . . . is as great a paradox, as an honest man without the fear of God. . . . 2nd U.S. President, John Adams Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/ *** List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: memberh...@webstandardsgroup.org ***
Re: [WSG] Accessibility and HTML Emails
Felix Miata wrote: Email is supposed to be text communication. And yet, remarkably, there's multipart/alternative as a MIME type. Go figure. -- Hassan Schroeder - has...@webtuitive.com webtuitive design === (+1) 408-621-3445 === http://webtuitive.com twitter: @hassan dream. code. *** List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: memberh...@webstandardsgroup.org ***
