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E-access bulletin's Text Email Newsletter Standard

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From: Mike Lyman
Date: Oct 14, 2004 10:26AM

I have been looking at E-access bulletin's Text Email Newsletter (TEN)
Standard and was wondering what people think of the format.

You can review the standard at http://www.headstar.com/ten/

The purpose of the standard is "to ease navigation of plain text email
newsletters by all readers, including those using special access
technologies."


Here are some thoughts:

For the most part the 23 specifications make sense and will help to increase
accessibility and usability of plain text emails.

Specification 08 states:

"+08: Use the + symbol to mark each section and story within a section.
Use up to three levels of hierarchy: +++ at the very beginning of the
document; ++ for a section heading; and + for a heading or headline
beginning an individual article. As a variation to this principle, it is
acceptable to use # (the 'hash' or 'numeral sign'), but not to use * (the
asterisk) because asterisks are often interpreted as a 'wild card' in a
search."

It seems that this specification is to help with the ability to search
within the text of the email. This would be useful if the user knows that
they can search using the "+" and numbers but at first glance the "+" seem
to decrease the accessibility and usability for those that use screen
readers because before each piece of content the screen reader would read
"plus sign" one, two, or three times before reading the content.

Any thoughts or comments?

Michael Lyman
Instructional Technologist
WebAIM
6801 Old Main Hill
Utah State University
Logan, UT 84322
435-797-8284
<EMAIL REMOVED>