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RE: accessible quoting styles in emails?

for

From: Alastair Campbell
Date: Jun 5, 2006 6:00AM

Patrick Lauke wrote:
> which essentially removes the ">" signs and prefixes
> each quoted fragment with the name of the original author,
> followed by your own name and your specific reply...
[snip]
> Does the standard inline
> quoting cause any issues to users of AT, or those with
> cognitive disabilities?

Unfortunately my Italian is non-existent, but I have heard that it can
be difficult when using a screen reader, as there is no differentiation
between quote and new content. Depending on the user's settings, using
quote marks often works better.

There would be a couple of different aspects to pull apart: best
practice, standard practice, and what currently works.

My initial reaction is that we should stick to 'standard' quoting
methods and the user agents should make it easier.

For example: If you use Thunderbird for email lists, previously quoted
items are given a border on the left and right which has been visually
translated from the greater than signs. It also works with nested
quotes, adding borders for each nesting.

That isn't much help for screen reader users right now, but presumably
if it can be programmatically detected easily and consistently, it
shouldn't be that hard to do for other user agents?

Kind regards,

-Alastair

--
Alastair Campbell | Director of User Experience
t. +44 (0)117 929 7333 | <EMAIL REMOVED>

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