ADA issues

MelissaB4585 · ‎01-24-2019

We send weekly emails to our on campus residents. One resident is blind and uses a screen reader. I haven't found many threads talking about this issue. From what I can tell Constant Contact is not ADA compliant and the only option is using ALT text which by the way didn't work when I tested it out. Is there not a way to send a text only version of our weekly email? Are there any options in Constant Contact (other than ALT text) to create an email that a screen reader can view and read to someone who is visually impaired?

Aaron_H · ‎01-24-2019

Hello @MelissaB4585,

Thank you for bringing your question to the community! I'm sorry to hear that the alt-text didn't work in this case, it's been effective in the few cases I've worked on this issue in the past. I'm afraid that your research was correct, and we do not have alternate options for creating a text-only version of these campaigns. The best alternative that I'm aware of, is you could create a second email with only text in it, that I believe should still be readable, then you can send that second email to only those contacts need text-only campaigns.

In theory you could also create a custom-code email, that contains the elements necessary to work on most email clients, as well as function inside the screen reader that you're suggesting, however we do not have any additional support for screen-reader compatibility to determine what exactly in that specific screen reader is causing it to not be able to read the alt-text.

If you have any other information about what's happening exactly with that screen reader, or any workarounds you find, we'd love to hear them so that we have more information to share in the future if others face the same issues.

Aaron_H
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McMasterGR · ‎04-03-2019

We also have this issue and would like to recommend that Constant Contact work on a text-only option. I have used other bulk email clients that provide this.

We need Universal design - not a separate email for any visually-impaired readers. We don't actually know which of our users need this design. We would like a version that works for everyone.

Thank you.

benjamin.jarvela · ‎11-28-2019

This is still an issue. None of the non-legacy options from Constant Contact are even remotely compliant. This is a direct violation of federal law. This needs to be addressed immediately - this issue has been neglected for years.