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Re: Is email accessible?

for

From: Randi
Date: Apr 29, 2009 9:30AM

For the problems with Outlook, is there a way to do like Google does
when a search result is a pdf? When I run across a pdf in a search
result, I always click "view as html". Is there some way to do this
with emails for Outlook?

As for top posting and quotes, there's nothing wrong with it, its just
quite a pain to navigate through with a screnreader. The message
before last, quoted the short message, and between the first word and
the one sentence, I arrowed down about 5 lines before there was any
text. When an entire message is quoted, with replies intermingled, I
have to read through the whole thing to find replies. The suggestion
of only quoting relevant information is a good one, as far as ease for
screen reader users. A sighted person could skim through what they
know they've already read to find answers within a quote.

Randi

On 4/29/09, Moore,Michael < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> We have been dealing with a few issues related to email accessibility
> for JAWS users since our agency has migrated to MS Office 2007. Outlook
> 2007 does not use the IE rendering engine to display HTML emails. For
> emails composed in Outlook this is not a problem and the structure and
> alternative text is delivered nicely. However, many newsletters are
> distributed containing structure that is not supported well by the MS
> Office HTML rendering engine. This is particularly a problem when
> attempting to navigate an email where the HTML is dependent on table
> layout. JAW tends to just stop reading at a certain point. Since many
> email programs including Outlook 2007 do not support CSS positioning
> table layout is very common. Our JAWS users have developed a couple of
> strategies for reading these types of emails. First, force the email to
> open in IE. This usually allows proper rendering and reading but does
> not offer the opportunity for a reply. Second, copy and paste the email
> into notepad. This results in a loss of structure or hyperlinks, and
> sometimes a loss of content, or rendering in a confusing order. The
> third option is to have all email converted to plain text, with this
> last choice the user looses the structure and sometimes some of the
> content and reading order may suffer as well.
>
> My recommendation is to keep all emails simple. If desired, provide a
> link to a well formed web presentation of the material contained in the
> email. Adding basic structure such as lists or headings will be
> beneficial for people who view the email as HTML but keep in mind that
> people who choose to receive all email as plain text will not get the
> structure.
>
> As to top or bottom posting. Is it really necessary to quote the entire
> thread? How about just quoting the relevant pieces along with who asked
> them with answers in line. Sometimes it may not be necessary to quote
> anything, particularly when adding your voice to a discussion. The
> subject line of the email may be sufficient.
>
> Mike Moore
> (512) 424-4159
>
>