Accessible School Newsletters Made Easy: How Smore Helps Educators Stay ADA-Compliant

Today, accessibility is more than a buzzword—it’s a necessity. For educators and school administrators, ensuring every family and stakeholder can access school communications isn’t just the right thing to do—it’s a legal and ethical responsibility.

That’s where Smore comes in. 

Smore empowers educators to create beautiful, engaging, and most importantly, accessible school newsletters that comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

Smore and WCAG 2.1 Compliance

Smore is committed to meeting the highest standards of digital accessibility. Our platform aligns with WCAG 2.1 Level A and AA success criteria, which serve as the internationally recognized benchmarks for web accessibility. These guidelines ensure that digital content is perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust, making Smore newsletters more usable for people with visual, auditory, motor, and cognitive disabilities.

With Smore, educators can confidently meet both their legal responsibilities and their deeper goal of inclusive communication.

Accessibility Features Built Into Every Smore Newsletter

Here’s how Smore makes accessibility effortless from the start:

Font Size Customization

Readers can adjust font size based on their personal needs—ideal for low vision or comfort reading. Whether someone prefers larger text due to low vision or simply for better readability, this flexibility ensures the content is accessible to everyone.

High Contrast Mode

Smore includes a toggle for high contrast to support readers with visual impairments, light sensitivity, or color blindness. This mode significantly improves text readability by enhancing the contrast between text and background elements, making it easier for all readers to engage with the content.

Color and Font Testing

Every color, font, and font size option in Smore undergoes accessibility checks to meet compliance standards.. Our testing includes verifying sufficient contrast ratios and ensuring that fonts are legible and readable across various devices and screen sizes. These tests are ongoing and play a critical role in our product development process.

Accessible Brand Kits

One of Smore’s newest features—Brand Kits—allows schools to ensure consistent, accessible design choices across their newsletters. The available options for colors and fonts are tested and accessible. So when school and district administrators create a Brand Kit for everyone to use, they can be sure it’ll be accessible.

Brand Kits not only simplify the design process for individual educators but also guarantee that all communications reflect the district’s commitment to accessibility. By offering only accessible color and font options, Brand Kits reduce the risk of non-compliance and make inclusive communication part of your school or district’s brand identity.

Why Accessibility Matters in School Newsletters

Accessible newsletters do more than check a box, they close communication gaps. Many families face barriers to reading digital school content, whether due to a disability, limited English proficiency, or aging eyesight. Poorly designed newsletters make things worse.

Smore helps educators build accessibility into every school communication message, without extra work. The result?

• Stronger family engagement
  
• Greater community trust
  
• No one left behind

Smore helps educators send a clear message: every member of the school community matters.

Inclusive Communication Made Simple

At Smore, we believe accessibility should be baked into every communication, not bolted on after the fact.

That’s why educators love using Smore to create newsletters that are not only beautiful and engaging but accessible to every member of their community.

Ready to Send Newsletters Everyone Can Read?

Create an ADA-compliant newsletter with Smore. It’s free to get started. Start reaching every family, every time.