The European Accessibility Act (EAA): Are Your Emails Compliant?

The EAA deadline has arrived. Learn what the law requires, how it affects every marketing and transactional email you send, and the fastest way to pass an accessibility audit.

If you have users in the EU, the European Accessibility Act now applies to every message leaving your WordPress site. This includes businesses of all types, whether you’re running a cozy bookshop in Brooklyn, or a membership community in Mumbai.

The European Accessibility Act (or EAA for short) aims to make digital services accessible to everyone across all 27 EU member states. Most small business owners are scrambling to make their websites accessible, but your emails count as digital services too.

Non-compliant businesses can face fines of up to €50,000 per offense, with daily penalties of €1,000 for ongoing violations. Beyond avoiding fines, accessible emails actually help your business. You’re potentially excluding millions of customers with disabilities who can’t read or interact with your current emails.

Let’s break down what compliance actually looks like in your inbox.

Key Dates & Enforcement Timeline

Milestone	Date	What It Means
Directive adopted	27 Jun 2019	EAA text published
Member-state transposition	28 Jun 2022	National laws in force
Mandatory compliance for new emails	28 Jun 2025	Law applies to every new digital product/service released
Transitional period ends	28 Jun 2030	Legacy emails & templates must comply

Penalties Snapshot: Up to €50,000 per offense, plus €1,000/day for ongoing violations, varying by member state. Laws go in force June 28, 2025.

Who Needs to Comply With the European Accessibility Act (Spoiler: Probably You)

If you have users in the EU, you’re covered! The EU doesn’t care where your business is located. They care about your user base.

Online shops send order confirmations and abandoned cart emails. Service businesses send appointment confirmations and invoice reminders. But this also includes:

• Membership sites sending welcome emails, content notifications, and password resets.
• SaaS platforms delivering account updates, feature announcements, and usage alerts.
• Content creators sending newsletter subscriptions, course access emails, and community updates.
• Non-profits delivering donation confirmations, volunteer coordination emails, and impact reports.

Even if you’re not selling anything, if you’re sending automated emails to users who happen to be in the EU, the law applies to you.

Now, there is a tiny escape hatch: if you have fewer than 10 employees AND make less than €2 million per year, you might be exempt. Once you count contractors, part-timers, and that intern who helps with social media, most WordPress businesses don’t qualify for this exemption.

EEA Email Requirements Explained

WCAG 2.1 is your new best friend. These Web Content Accessibility Guidelines tell you exactly what makes an email accessible. You don’t need a computer science degree to understand it.

Make Your Email Structure Make Sense

Your email needs to be organized like a well-written article, with clear headings and logical sections. Screen readers use these headings to help people jump around your content quickly.

Think of it like organizing a newspaper – you want a clear headline, subheadings for different sections, and content that flows logically from one point to the next. This helps everyone, not just people using assistive technology.

Most email builders and plugins handle this structure automatically when you use their templates, so you probably don’t need to worry about the technical details unless you’re coding emails from scratch.

Add Descriptions To All Images

Every image needs a description—what accessibility folks call “alt text.” For decorative images that don’t add meaningful information (like decorative borders or spacer graphics), you should include an empty alt attribute (alt=””) to tell screen readers to skip them entirely.

When writing alt text, be concise but descriptive. Instead of “image of product,” write “red leather handbag with gold hardware.” For your company logo, “Acme Corp logo” is better than just “logo.” If an image contains text (like a promotional banner), include that text in your description.

Never completely omit the alt attribute – this actually makes screen readers announce the image filename, which is confusing for users. Always include the alt attribute, but leave it empty for purely decorative images.

Make Sure Text Is Easy To Read

Your text needs enough contrast to be readable. That pale gray text on white background might look minimalist and chic, but people with visual impairments will struggle to read it. Aim for dark enough text that even your grandmother could read it without squinting.

The WCAG guidelines require a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text. You can check this using free tools like the WebAIM Color Contrast Checker – just plug in your text and background colors and it’ll tell you if you pass.

Set The Language Attribute

Tell browsers and screen readers what language your email is in. Most email tools and WordPress plugins handle this automatically, but if you’re building custom templates, make sure the language is specified.

This might seem minor, but it’s crucial for screen readers to pronounce words correctly. If your email is in English but the language isn’t set, a screen reader might try to read it as French or German, making it incomprehensible.

If you send emails in multiple languages, make sure each email template has the correct language attribute. This is especially important for international businesses or multilingual websites.

Write Clear Link Text

Instead of “Click here” (which tells screen reader users absolutely nothing), write something helpful like “Download your receipt” or “View your order status.”

Screen reader users often navigate by jumping from link to link, so each link needs to make sense on its own. “Click here” could refer to anything. “Read more” is slightly better, but “Read our complete guide to email marketing” is much more helpful.

The same goes for buttons. Instead of generic text like “Submit” or “Go,” use specific language like “Download free guide” or “Start your trial.” This helps everyone understand what will happen when they click.

Make Emails Keyboard Accessible

Some people navigate using only their keyboard. Make sure they can tab through your email in a logical order and see where they are with clear focus indicators.

When someone presses the Tab key, the focus should move in a logical order – typically left to right, top to bottom. Links and buttons should have visible focus indicators (like a colored outline) so users know where they are.

Most email clients handle this reasonably well by default, but test it yourself. Try navigating your email using only the Tab key and see if it makes sense. If you’re using custom CSS, make sure you’re not removing focus indicators.

Keep Important Information As Text

If you put your sale price or important details inside an image, people using screen readers won’t know about it. Keep critical information as actual text whenever possible.

This is one of the biggest mistakes businesses make. That beautiful graphic with “50% Off Everything” might look great, but if someone can’t see images, they’ll miss your entire promotion. Put the offer in the subject line and email text too.

The same goes for contact information, event details, or any other crucial data. Images can supplement your text, but they shouldn’t replace it. When in doubt, ask yourself: “If all images disappeared, would this email still make sense?”

How To Audit Your WordPress Emails For Accessibility

Here’s how to check if your emails pass the test, without needing a PhD in web accessibility:

What You’re Doing	How to Do It	Tools That Help
Make a list	Write down every email your site sends	Check your WP Mail SMTP logs, make a spreadsheet
Run the robots	Use automated tools to catch obvious problems	Try the WAVE browser extension or Axe DevTools
Go manual	Navigate your emails like your customers do	Turn on your computer’s screen reader and listen
Fix the worst first	Start with emails you send most often	Focus on welcome emails, receipts, password resets
Update your templates	Make changes to your email designs	Update email templates in your plugins and email marketing platforms
Test the changes	Send test emails and check them again	Use the same tools from step 2 to verify fixes worked
Set a reminder	Check your templates every few months	Put it in your calendar like any other business task

WP Mail SMTP Features For Accessible Email Delivery

WP Mail SMTP won’t do your accessibility homework for you, but it definitely helps you submit it properly:

Detailed Email Logging (Pro Feature) – WP Mail SMTP keeps a complete record of all emails sent from WordPress, including subject, sender, recipients, content, headers, delivery status, and source plugin. This documentation helps demonstrate compliance during audits.

Email Resend Functionality – The Resend feature lets you quickly send failed emails to the same recipients, either individually or in bulk. You can even modify recipients or choose different email providers when resending.

Reliable SMTP Delivery – WP Mail SMTP reconfigures WordPress’s wp_mail() function to use proper SMTP credentials instead of PHP mail, which often fails or gets blocked by hosting providers. Your accessibility improvements only matter if emails actually reach inboxes.

Multiple Provider Support – Choose from 12+ email providers including SendLayer, Gmail, Outlook, Brevo, and SMTP.com to ensure the most reliable delivery for your accessible emails.

The plugin doesn’t create accessible email templates for you, but it ensures that whatever accessible emails you create actually reach your recipients rather than disappearing into spam folders or failing to send entirely.

Fix Your WordPress Emails Now

Email Accessibility Mistakes To Avoid

We’ve all been there. Here are the most common accessibility blunders and their surprisingly simple fixes:

The Mistake	Why It’s a Problem	The Easy Fix
“Click here” everywhere	Screen readers can’t tell what “here” refers to	Write “Download your invoice” or “View order details”
Beautiful image-only headers	Looks great, completely invisible to screen readers	Add real text over your images or beside them
Subtle, elegant gray text	Might look sophisticated, fails contrast requirements	Go darker—your content deserves to be readable
PDF-only receipts	Most PDFs are accessibility nightmares	Use form plugins like WPForms that send formatted HTML receipts instead

Most of these fixes make your emails better for everyone, not just people using assistive technology. 

Future-Proofing Your Email Accessibility Strategy

Accessibility laws are constantly evolving. WCAG 2.2 is already published, and the EU will probably update their requirements in a year or two. The smart move is to build your email templates in a way that makes future updates easy.

This trend is spreading beyond Europe. The US is working on federal accessibility rules, Canada has similar requirements, and other countries are following suit. Accessibility compliance future-proofs your business for a more inclusive world.

Consider investing in some training for your team (or yourself, if you’re a one-person show). The W3C offers excellent accessibility courses that are actually useful, not just theoretical fluff.

You can also use the following resources to get advice on the European Accessibility Act and stay up to date with the latest legistation and guidelines:

• European Commission EAA Portal – The official word on what you need to do
• Siteimprove EAA vs WCAG Guide – The technical details without the legal jargon
• WP Mail SMTP Documentation – How to set up reliable, compliant email delivery

Accessibility compliance helps you avoid fines (€50,000 penalties are pretty steep). More importantly, accessible emails open doors for potential customers who navigate the world differently than you do.

Every accessible email you send welcomes someone who might have been locked out before. Every inaccessible email is a missed opportunity and a user who might go to your competitor instead.

The European Accessibility Act is already in effect. Run through that checklist, audit your most important email templates, and make sure your WordPress site can deliver compliant messages reliably.

WP Mail SMTP ensures your newly accessible emails actually reach their destination. The most accessible email in the world doesn’t help anyone if it ends up in a spam folder.

Fix Your WordPress Emails Now

Next, See More Email Design Advice

Want more email design tips, examples, and best practices? Take a look at our guide to email design for some actionable advice on improving your emails.

Ready to fix your emails? Get started today with the best WordPress SMTP plugin. If you don’t have the time to fix your emails, you can get full White Glove Setup assistance as an extra purchase, and there’s a 14-day money-back guarantee for all paid plans.

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