Seriously, the job I have now requried a masters degree. My cover letter and my 10+ years of specfic experience got them to talk to me even though I only have an associates degree.

Now I am the go-to for search commitees in my department, and the only thing worse then no cover letter is when folks use a form one and forget to change ot or fill in the blanks.

Its very unfriendly to screen readers. In a lot of pictures-of-text posts you will see people transcribe the text so that everyone can access the web equally :)