Accessible newsletter provider

By Jurgen, 7 April, 2015

Forum
Accessibility Advocacy

Hi,
does anyone know of an accessible newsletter provider? I tried MailChimp and CleverReach. Both are great providers but their edit fields are totally inaccessible to VoiceOver on the Mac.
Slowly but surely I need such a provider because of the increasing number of my german newsletter users. There are other advantages as well. Anyway, do you know a recommendable provider or a solution which I could install on my own web space?
Thanks and
all the best
Jürgen

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Comments

By Kevin Reeves on Wednesday, April 8, 2015 - 12:16

Hello.
I use mailchimp because of their Email Beamer feature. This allows you to send an email to an address they provide and it automatically creates a campaign for you.
One thing to note, however, is that the email must be formatted with the proper html p tags, or the text won't be formatted correctly.
Since I'm a blogger, I use Mars edit, which has amazing html and markdown capibilities for posting to a wordpress site. However, I also use it when designing campaigns because I can quickly use it to format all of my html before pasting it into a new email message and sending it off to the Mailchimp email beamer.
If you're already good with html, you can just type all the raw code into a new email message and won't need the app, but it works for me, so it was an invaluable purchase.

Another option is an app called Sendy. This is a front end to the Amazon simple email service (SES).

Ses lets you sent tons of emails per month for cents on the dollar, so you could literally send thousands and only pay a few bucks.
The way it works is that you install sendy on your web host and link it to your ses account. It provides a feature rich front end that is accessible and easy to use.
J J from Blind Bargains/AT Guys just got set up with it and is incredibly happy. It has literally saved him like 30 bucks a month.

A 3rd option is to use PHP list, which comes with your web host. The drawback to this is that the more people on your list, the more emails are sent from your host's account, thus the more hourly processes being used. Not the best option in my opinion, but it will work in a pinch.

Hope this sheds some light on some ideas for ya.

GOod luck.

Kevin

http://kevinreeves.net

By Ekaj on Wednesday, April 8, 2015 - 12:16

Hello. Another possible option is Dreamwidth Studios. I don't know if they have anything for sending out campaigns, but perhaps someone else knows. However, I created a blog with them last year and their service works great with VoiceOver on the Mac. I've also been told it works well with the other screen readers. The service has a lot of awesome features, and you can sign up for either a free or paid account. The other nice thing is that the backend stuff is very accessible too, such as moderating comments and so forth. I am subscribed to their e-newsletter, and it is very accessible as well with VO and I'm assuming the other screen readers. The main website is http://www.dreamwidth.org .

By KE7ZUM on Wednesday, April 8, 2015 - 12:16

You can actually use the email function of mail chimp. if you want to, but I use my web provider's news letter provider which lets me compose my stuff then email. I have to know html, but it works very good.