[Athen] email preferences for people using AT - multi-part mime

[Alice Anderson]

>>

All .. there is an interesting discussion/debate about email and what  
is the preference for people using assistive technology.

Points being debated:

a. As far as accessibility, plain ASCII text is always the most  
"accessible", in the context of email, period. I don't think there is  
much more to say.


b. Not to burst your bubble (I too prefer plain text emails) but  
wouldn't HTML links to embedded anchors within the content of  
messages with lots of content be *more* accessible than forcing a  
screen reader to go through the plain text linearly?



c. I think it can be argue that if you do have links, then HTML may  
be accessible in the "accessibility" sense, but if you're simply  
trying to convey information in the absence of of hyperlinks, plain  
text is always the most "accessible" in the broadest set of  
circumstances. Also, I don't think that many of these types of  
messages in question that may be HTML are using organizational  
anchors within the content...


are ATHEN folks able to give input?

thanks in advance,
alice



                  Alice Anderson
TECHNOLOGY ACCESSIBILITY PROGRAM
   Division of Information Technology (DoIT)
       University of Wisconsin-Madison
      1210 West Dayton Street (3124)
              Madison, WI 53706

           Telephone: 608.262.2129