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From: Mike Lyman
Date: Thu, Oct 14 2004 10:26AM
Subject: E-access bulletin's Text Email Newsletter Standard
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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 ADDRESS REMOVED =

From: Austin, Darrel
Date: Thu, Oct 14 2004 2:13PM
Subject: Re: E-access bulletin's Text Email Newsletter Standard
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> 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/
>
> For the most part the 23 specifications make sense and will help to
> increase accessibility and usability of plain text emails.

They appear to increase accessibility for those that use screen readers, but
some seem to hinder usability for anyone that doesn't (namely #10).

A text email can benefit from use of style characters:

THIS IS THE NEWSLETTER
=====================================================
Article 1
------------------------------------------------------

which greatly enhances the scanability of the email. Visually, the
specification document they use as the example is rather 'gray'...meaning
there's no obvious visual heirarchy to the structure (other than the +++
characters which are fairly faint in terms of overall text color).

So, and this is just MHO, I think this is one of those areas where
accessibility and usability collide a bit.

That said, a lot of the suggestions make a lot of sense...have a TOC, put
'dust jacket' info at the bottom of the email, etc.

As for the 'plus' issue...I agree. It seems odd to hear 'plus, plus, plus
section name' read out. That said, plain text isn't hierarchical or semantic
like HTML can be (with ULs and such) so I'm not sure what to suggest as an
alternative.

-Darrel

From: michael.brockington
Date: Fri, Oct 15 2004 7:50AM
Subject: Re: E-access bulletin's Text Email Newsletter Standard
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My main thought is that this is the wrong way around - compare with the HTML
headers, going from 1 - 6, or MS-Word from 1 - ? In both cases the numbers
are experienced in numerical order, and are therefore extensible, and easily
mapped to each other.

Mike

> From: mblyman [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ]
> Sent: 14 October 2004 17:30
> Subject: [WebAIM] E-access bulletin's Text Email Newsletter Standard
....
> I have been looking at E-access bulletin's Text Email
> Newsletter (TEN) Standard and was wondering what people think
> of the format.
....
> 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


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