[Athen] Possible changes in student email clients
John Foliot
jfoliot at stanford.edu
Tue Apr 28 16:34:52 PDT 2009
Heidi Scher wrote:
>
> Our IT department is currently looking at the email
> client we are using as well as reviewing Microsofts
> Live at edu and Google Apps to see which would better serve
> our student body email needs. Thought I'd ask the experts
> if you have any tips/hints regarding accessibility issues
> with either of the last two apps.
Heidi,
We went through this process a while back and are actually in the midst of
the migration process. At the time, the evaluation process had ultimately
focused on 3 possible solutions, including both MS's and Google's, as well
as Zimbra. The goal was an integrated email and calendaring solution.
Ultimately our university chose Zimbra, based upon a number of factors,
but from the accessibility angle I was lobbying for Zimbra anyway. While
Zimbra 'shines' as a Web 2.0, browser based solution (shine of course
being relative), all of the functionality can also be ported to other,
more native apps such as Outlook, Thunderbird or OS X Mail (for example),
and the 'basic' web-based interface is workable although hardly slick with
AT (and screen readers in particular). Like many of these apps, there is a
whole whack of Web 2.0, Ajax-y whizz-bang eye candy.
The Microsoft web-based solution (and again this was almost 2 years ago)
relied on using Internet Explorer for the "full" experience/functionality,
a serious issue on a campus that is likely close to 75% Mac-centric. By my
recollection, it met minimal Section 508 requirements, but hardly excelled
as a model of web accessibility. The Google solution of the time was an
absolute failure - to the point that when I enquired about Section 508
conformance the sales rep looked at me and said "...we have problems..."
(kinda slammed the door there I'd say).
The migration to Zimbra has been a scaled initiative with all students
having access to the web-based client for a couple of months now. I know
that there have been a few issues with the calendaring piece, but the
Zimbra team has been working with our IT services to iron out the bugs -
and while not yet there it appears that progress is being made.
Hopefully this info is of some use.
Cheers!
JF
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