WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Quoting previous emails

for

From: deblist
Date: Dec 7, 2009 5:48PM

Preceding quoted text with greater than signs is standard in many
email programs. The best way to do it, bar none, is for the
person replying to only leave in the text to which they are
directly replying which is necessary for context. However, this
is a pain to do, and most people leave in the entire body of the
previous thread without any editing. (I admit when I am low on
spoons I will do that myself.)

If you remove the greater than signs but leave in the quoted
text, then it is impossible for sighted users to know what text
is quoted and what is new. Some people try other indicators
(indenting the quoted text, or turning it blue, for example) but
that is invisible in many email programs (including mine) and
probably invisible to screenreaders.

Is there a standard way of indicating quotations in lists with
many blind users? I admit, I just assumed JAWS would know the
greater-than-sybol standard and adjust tone to match. We can
always use prose (eg. Geoff said "This is a pain" and Andrew
responded "You're right, it is"), but anything that's too
high-maintenance is something people won't do consistently.

-deborah