Fix Gmail Line-Height Shifts in iOS Mail (Apple) — Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) Guide for WCAG Accessibility Violations
Accessibility failures prevent screen readers from navigating templates, isolating disabled subscribers and increasing unsubscribe rates. Below is the targeted integration guide to fix Gmail Line-Height Shifts inside iOS Mail (Apple) templates when using Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC).
Technical Breakdown
iOS Mail (Apple) uses the WebKit Mobile which lacks support for standard rendering rules. This causes Gmail Line-Height Shifts elements to break or collapse when rendering templates.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) Behaviors
SFMC's Content Builder wraps block exports in div frames that can break conditional comments. Additionally, AMPScript calls for personalizations can trigger parsing errors if they are inside MSO conditional comments. Ensure your AMPScript tags are evaluated *outside* the VML blocks. Inject correct table roles (role='presentation') and keep color pairings above the WCAG AA contrast threshold of 4.5:1.
Remediation Code Block
Define line-height as a unitless ratio (e.g. line-height: 1.4) or in explicit percentages (e.g. line-height: 140%). Avoid mixing em and px units, and apply the styles directly to the containing td or span tags containing typography. In your Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) campaign manager, make sure you configure your links to run via %%unsubscribe_url%%.
<p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">Typography Paragraph</p>Live Code Sandbox Test
How to Deploy inside Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC)
Copy the fixed VML or table wrapper code block from the remediation box above.
Create an 'HTML content' layout block in Content Builder. Paste the table structure. Enclose any custom merge tags inside standard AMPscript wrapper lines.