Outlook Email Broken Layout Fix: Resolve Default Image Blocking Layouts 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 Default Image Blocking Layouts inside Outlook Office 365 (Web) templates when using Brevo (Sendinblue).
Technical Breakdown
Outlook Office 365 (Web) uses the Office Rendering Service which lacks support for standard rendering rules. This causes Default Image Blocking Layouts elements to break or collapse when rendering templates.
Brevo (Sendinblue) Behaviors
Brevo's rendering system injects inline spacing helpers to support their responsive editor, which can cause column overlaps in Outlook. Using explicit table alignments is required. Inject correct table roles (role='presentation') and keep color pairings above the WCAG AA contrast threshold of 4.5:1.
Remediation Code Block
To resolve this, always define explicit width and height attributes on your images to preserve their layout boxes when blocked. Add robust alternative (ALT) text styled with CSS font-sizes and colors, and encode vital brand logos directly as Base64 data URIs. In your Brevo (Sendinblue) campaign manager, make sure you configure your links to run via {{ unsubscribe }}.
<img src="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAADIA..." width="150" height="40" alt="Company Logo" style="display: block; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; color: #111111; font-weight: bold; border: 0;">Live Code Sandbox Test
How to Deploy inside Brevo (Sendinblue)
Copy the fixed VML or table wrapper code block from the remediation box above.
Open Brevo's template canvas, select the element you wish to configure, click 'Edit HTML' or insert a standalone 'HTML' content block, and paste the code.