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Re: Accessibility vs. Google and Microsoft Exchange

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From: Kara Zirkle
Date: Jul 14, 2008 11:20AM


Both Programs do offer IMAP and POP, however it is not just email that I'm
looking at. Each offer a series of their own applications such as online
"storage", real time portal access such as live meeting and web creation.
However these are not being looked at from an accessibility view. I can
understand real time not having the ability to be accessible since it is
students making real time changes to documents, however the simplicity of
making the website accessible for the online storage or having built in
capabilities of tagging things on the website if you have a web creation
tool is more of my concern. Has anyone looked at either of these
applications as an entire product?

Thanks,

Kara Zirkle
IT Accessibility Coordinator
Assistive Technology Initiative
Thompson Hall RM 114 MS: 6A11
Fairfax Campus
4400 University Drive
Fairfax, VA 22030
Phone: 703-993-9815
Fax: 703-993-4743
http://www.gmu.edu/accessibility/ati/home.html


-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Patrick Lauke
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 11:31 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Accessibility vs. Google and Microsoft Exchange

> Kara Zirkle

> I am finding that the free email rush of Google and Microsoft
> Exchange is
> hitting the higher education environment quickly. Both emails provide
> productive functionality for a college student, I'm more
> concerned about the
> accessibility view of things.

Kara,

my pragmatic view on this would be: as long as you also provide POP3 (or
even better IMAP) access to the email accounts, students may choose to use
their own desktop-based email reader, which stands a chance of being more
accessible (with regards to things like screen reader access, support for
the OS' colour schemes - e.g. high-contrast themes - etc).

Note that this is not my department/remit, so I'm just speaking as
myself...this may not be the official position of our university.

Patrick