Prioritizing accessibility in your marketing efforts can substantially broaden your audience. According to the World Health Organization, one in six people—or 1.3 billion of the world’s population—experience some form of disability. And various disabilities aren’t the only factors that can affect how customers interact with information. Age, tech skills, and native language all play a role. Bottom line: Even the most compelling marketing strategy won’t drive performance if consumers can’t properly access your content.
Learn actionable steps to design accessible marketing content and develop an inclusive marketing strategy that creates a better user experience for all customers.
What is accessible marketing?
Accessible marketing is the practice of designing marketing collateral so that people with disabilities (like visual or hearing impairments) can understand your brand’s messaging. For example, simple choices like using high-contrast colors and descriptive image captions can help your web content be more accessible, demonstrate social responsibility, and reach a wider audience.
Failure to comply with accessibility standards may damage brand reputation and make your business vulnerable to legal risks. The European Union, for example, fines companies that do not comply with the European Accessibility Act, which took effect in June 2025. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and World Wide Web Consortium provide many recommendations for web accessibility, particularly with the relevant Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
Accessibility vs. inclusivity: What’s the difference?
While they serve the same goal of including people, accessibility is more about functionality, whereas inclusivity is about ensuring different groups of people feel seen. Accessible design is all about removing barriers to comprehension. It involves describing images to people who can’t see them, adding captions to videos for viewers who can’t hear the audio, and choosing fonts that are easy to read.
Inclusive design addresses diverse cultural experiences and perspectives so that a wide range of people feel welcomed and included. It can look like localizing your website for new markets, showcasing diverse ages and ethnicities in your lifestyle photography, and building campaigns around different cultural celebrations.
Accessible marketing helps people understand you; inclusive marketing shows people you understand them.
Accessible marketing design elements
Accessible marketing considers the individual differences and specific needs that affect how customers interact with your content. While this is not an exhaustive list, you can learn about simple design choices that your company can promote to enhance accessibility in marketing materials:
Legible text
Fonts range from straightforward sans-serif designs, like Helvetica, to highly ornamental scripts like Blackletter. In general, large, simple lettering is easier to read. Calligraphy-style text can be hard to see on small screens or for low-vision users. Small lettering may also be less visible. Web design guidelines recommend font sizes between 16 and 24 pixels for maximum readability.
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Contrast
Color contrast helps text and images stand out, making them easier to interpret. For example, bold black text would be clear against a white or light background, but may be hard to see in a dark grey design. Text overlays or patterned backgrounds can also decrease visibility. WCAG guidelines recommend a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for small text and 3:1 for large text.
Alternative text
Adding image alt text, or alternative text, helps sight-impaired users understand visual information. Including alt text provides essential context for consumers in the broader relevance of the page. Alt text is read by a screen reader for all non-decorative images, including photos, informative icons, charts, and graphics. There can be search engine optimization (SEO) benefits to implementing alt text as well.
ARIA features
Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) attributes are built right into your website’s HTML and communicate what you’re clicking on and why, helping anyone using screen reader services. They are mostly used for dynamic content that may refresh or engage the site in some way, such as for a dialogue box or a clickable drop-down menu. They often indicate calls to action (CTAs) and what pressing a certain button will do to navigate you away from the page.
Captions
Captions or audio descriptions help make video and audio content more accessible. This practice benefits hearing-impaired users, viewers watching with the sound off, and non-native speakers. Video players like YouTube and Vimeo support captioning—including text directly over the video—to create a valuable viewing experience. For podcasts, consider including a transcript on a web page to make the content accessible.
Clear language
Use simple, concise language to get your message across. Idiomatic phrases, puns, and technical terms may confuse non-native speakers or unfamiliar audiences.
Descriptive buttons
Using descriptive buttons promotes accessible navigation. Buttons are easy to identify, whereas hyperlinks may not be clear to a hearing-impaired individual using a text-to-speech tool. Include a clear CTA to provide context. A button that says Click Here, for example, doesn’t tell customers what will happen if they click. A simple phrase like Shop Now or Sign Up provides more information.
Design affordances
Design affordances are signals, often visual aids, that show users how to navigate a website, graphic, or email. Common examples include shaded buttons that appear raised and pressable, and cursor icons that indicate interactive elements. These cues indicate available actions for the person and can make interacting more intuitive.
Keyboard-only navigation
Keyboard-only navigation tools allow users to browse web pages with a series of keys—often tab, enter, and arrow keys. Practicing a consistent layout across your website benefits the user by creating a logical flow. If buttons have different functions depending on the page, navigation may feel cumbersome. To make forms and checkout flows accessible using only a keyboard, marketers should consider using a design cue, such as a highlight, to indicate active fields.
Multiple display options
Offering variable display options allows users to adjust their web experience to meet their individual abilities and preferences. This can include the choice to adjust website theme, contrast, and text size. Adding multiple website options, such as dark mode and light mode, can improve access for vision-impaired or light-sensitive users.
Some viewers may zoom in or out on a website or image to adjust text size. Text scaling helps ensure that the zoomed-in design displays correctly, without confusing line breaks or overlapping images. Websites can implement text scaling by working with responsive design templates or with HTML coding instructions. With this approach, text size is encoded with relative units instead of fixed pixel measurements. WCAG guidelines recommend that websites should be able to scale up to 200% without losing functionality.
Tips for making your marketing more accessible
Accessibility standards may be understood by specialists, but that doesn’t necessarily translate to your team’s responsibilities. Here are some concrete steps to help you implement best practices so your company is positioned for success in every area of digital accessibility:
Communicate with your team
Seek expert perspectives and build a plan for specific accessibility and inclusion efforts across every relevant channel. Prioritize team discussions between marketers, developers, and cross-functional partners so everyone understands how crucial accessible design is, with plenty of room to answer any questions.
When you invite subject matter experts or accessibility champions to speak, it can be impactful. One of the most powerful ways to connect your team to the importance of their daily usability choices is to hear from customers with disabilities on what their preferred digital experience is like.
Plan for accessibility from the beginning
Bringing accessibility into your marketing strategy from the beginning builds an ethos that these decisions matter and that your customers matter. It models consistency from start to finish, and is preferable to trying to clean up assets reactively because they didn’t meet accessibility standards.
Establish brand guidelines that take accessible content into consideration by selecting reader-friendly fonts and high-contrast brand colors, among many other inclusion factors. Accessible marketing is more than just a one-time strategic plan or course; it must become part of your standard workflow.
Choose the right tools
Look for email marketing tools and ad platforms with built-in accessibility features. Key elements include responsive design templates, alt text fields, keyboard navigation, and screen-reader compatibility. These features simplify implementation and lower the lift for your team. The faster you can get quality accessibility practices in place, the sooner your audience will benefit.
Test with assistive technology
Ask individuals who natively use assistive technology services, such as screen readers or keyboard-only navigation apps, to access your content. Their experiences will reveal how your digital content appears to the broader public.
Stats and metrics are valuable to see if you’re on track, but nothing quite captures anecdotal data like someone’s lived experiences. Test assistive technology first, so teams can amend any errors before marketing content goes live.
Use an accessibility checker
Consider using an accessibility checker to audit your website. These automated tools can identify HTML issues, color combinations, and missing elements that affect accessibility. Accessibility is something to consistently monitor and evaluate in order to improve the user experience.
Accessible marketing FAQ
What is accessible marketing?
Accessible marketing is the practice of designing and delivering content so that the widest possible audience can understand it. Best practices include making clear visual choices, using simple language, and including structural design elements that simplify navigation and interpretation.
What are the four principles of accessible web design?
According to the World Wide Web Consortium, accessible design should be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. These four principles were created to ensure that all individuals have equal access to web content, regardless of ability. They address the essential elements required for content comprehension.
What does it mean for marketing to be accessible?
Accessible marketing makes conscious choices that promote comprehension and understanding for all consumers. This may involve using large text for easy visual interpretation, adding captions to audio content, or using simple, everyday language to explain technical content.
What is an example of accessibility in marketing?
Adding captions to promotional video content is an example of accessible marketing. Including text helps hearing-impaired viewers interpret auditory information. For other audio content, such as a podcast, sharing a transcript promotes access.
