On Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:50:46 -0700, Linda W <[email protected]> wrote: > Someone else mentioned blind people using screen readers -- they > certainly don't > appreciate bottom posting -- in fact. Since people are demanding > plaintext to support blind readers (supposedly -- most readers are smart > enough to parse plain HTML), BUT most readers can't know what to skip > over as previously read text.
If you don't use HTML then they are smart enough. In my last job I spent several years being responsible for checking software with screen readers. When I was unable to see a screen I needed three things from email: context /before/ the reply, trimming of all unnecessary quotes, and a clear distinction between quotes and new material. HTML and top-posted mail provided none of those. With text mails all quotes were marked off with ">" at the start of the line. Some MUAs can be configured to collapse the quotes, while others can be configured to display them differently (which is picked up by the screen reader as a change in voice). Either way, it was no problem distinguishing between quoted and new material with the screen reader. But with HTML that marker is lost. > I think people here should consider the effect their demands have on > other people. > If you give the reason of enforcing plaintext to make things easier for blind > people, > then I would point out -- that blind people are going to be reading a message > from top > to bottom and don't want to have to re-read all the context each time they > reread > a message. With top-posted mail there's no standard way of indicating where the new material ends, and no context to help you understand what the text you're reading is about. I don't think you understand just how easy it is to lose track of where you are when your only contact with the computer is a voice reading out one tiny part of the screen at a time. The first time I ever used a screen reader I became hopelessly lost in under two minutes. Fortunately for me, I had the option of turning the monitor back on. You see a quote before text as something to be skipped over. You can see that the message you've just opened is right below the one you were just reading, so you know that it's going to be a reply to that message. But blind people don't have all those visual cues. All they have is the first few words of a message being read out to them. If that is a short quote then they have the context they need, spoken in a voice that tells them it's a quote. But if the writer just blunders straight in with their new text then not only does the blind user have no idea whether this is related to the message they've just read, one they read two days ago or something completely new, but also they have no way of easily locating the context because there's no standard for indicating quotes in top-posted mail. If you really cared about blind users you wouldn't be advocating a policy that's aimed squarely at people who can see a whole screen full of visual cues. -- Matthew Winn --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message from the "vim_use" maillist. For more information, visit http://www.vim.org/maillist.php -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
