Newsletters

Transition your newsletter away from PDF

A PDF newsletter is extremely difficult to make compliant. Please be creative when thinking of alternative solutions!

FAQ

What if I upload my PDF and share the the link? Putting your PDF on a website or Google Drive does not fix inherent issues with inaccessibility.

What if I share a CANVA link? A Canva "share" link to a document is also not a solution. The Canva document will still be inaccessible. Canva's accessibility features are very limited and insufficient for generating PDFs, including newsletters and flyers.

What about old newsletters/archives? You can keep an archive provided it is clearly labeled archive and in a separate section of your website. New materials created after April, 24 2026 are not grandfathered in and must be compliant.

Online newsletter software

We recommend Microsoft Sway as the closest 1:1 replacement for a PDF newsletter. Sample Sway newsletter is available here.

Sway is available in the Microsoft Office suite, which is available for free to anyone with a Microsoft account. With Sway, you can “publish” a newsletter that anyone can access via a URL. You will still need to use accessibility best practices (headings, alt text, etc.) when drafting your newsletter, but Sway has built-in accessibility features (covered in the Sway guide) that make this much easier.

• VCE Sway newsletter templates are available here

• Guide to using our Sway template for local VCE programs

• Sample Sway newsletter is available here

• View Suzanne Pruitt’s excellent Sway tutorial (note, this features the AREC templates, but the same concepts apply to the VCE templates).

How to get Sway: 

You will need a Microsoft account to create a Sway newsletter. Try clicking here to go to the Sway dashboard.

Additional pros of switching to Sway:

• You can edit your newsletter even after you publish/send out the link.

• Easy to keep an archive by making a list of your URLs (rather than posting all PDFs).

Easy to share your newsletter on social media by posting the URL and an attractive teaser image, like this template.

Alternative online newsletters: 

You might consider Smore a free online newsletter for 200 subscribers. Example smore newsletter here. We do not have any tutorials available for Smore at this time. 

Other options

Sway is not a perfect solution, but it is our best recommendaiton for creating an accessible newsletter for those currently using PDF (created with Publisher, Word, or Canva).

It is also theorietically possible to use email marketing software like MailChimp to create and send an accessible newsletter that links to news articles, events, etc. This would be a recommedation on a case-by-case basis and should be discussed and evaluated locally.

Virginia Tech does not have subscriptions to any marketing software platforms that are available to volunteers and any procurement issues should be handled and negotiated with your VCE office.