[Athen] Best practise for threads in discussions.

[Sean Keegan]

E.A. wrote:
I've been asked what would be the best way of conveying nesting
structure to screenreader users so that they could understand whether
a reply was to the original message in the thread or to a subsequent 
message.

Sean's reply:
One method that has gained some use on discussion lists is similar to 
what I have done in this message.  That is, put either the question or 
main point above and then respond to the message below.  If there are 
several points, then separate each point with your response.  Delete the 
remainder of the actual message.

Some people simply use the ">" symbol to designate the main topic in the 
previous message that is being responded to, but others put some 
information such as "My reply" to separate who is writing which 
message.  If the conversation has gone back and forth and the poster 
wishes to refocus to the original message, then I have also seen the 
convention where the phrase "Original Post" or "Original Message" is 
sometimes used instead of a person's name.

Does this help someone using a screen-reader?  I have heard answers all 
over the place, from "yes" to "no" to, as Patrick pointed out, "who 
cares?"  What I do like about separating the main points and replying to 
those individually is when checking e-mail via a portable device (e.g., 
iPhone, Blackberry, etc.) - I get the main points of the message and do 
not have to sift through a bunch of replies to figure out what was the 
original post.  Also, it helps to focus the issues in question and can 
make it easier to understand to what part of a message a person is 
responding.

Take care,
Sean