[Trainer-talk] Using Outlook.com with Screen readers

[David Goldfield]

A while ago, I saw some discussion on this list regarding the 
accessibility of the Outlook.com Web site with screen readers.  I 
decided to do some experimenting with the site and I am happy to report 
that, at least for me, the site was extremely usable.
First, the screen reader that I used was NVDA, along with the firefox 
browser.  All of the links seem to be clearly labeled, including 
navigating through the list of messages.  The web site didn't seem to 
use any Aria controls or tables and placing the message list in a table 
would have made navigation a bit more convenient.  However, since each 
message has a checkbox associated with it, screen reader users can press 
the letter x to navigate from one message to the next.  This is also 
true for window-eyes and for JAWS.
what really impressed me about Outlook.com is the fact that you can set 
it up to receive email from other accounts.  This is quite nice.  Since 
Verizon is my home Internet provider, I used to be able to go onto the 
verizon.net Web site to access Web mail from other computers.  A while 
ago, this interface became totally inaccessible and I haven't had a 
chance to contact verizon about this to report the issue.  However, with 
Outlook.com, I was able to go through the settings to add my verizon.net 
email address as an Outlook.com account, allowing me to access my 
account via a Webmail interface. Truth be told, this isn't really 
crucial for me as I use portable email clients off of a thumb drive when 
I'm on a computer that may not be set up with full accessibility.  Since 
I'm an NVDA user, I can use my thumb drive to run a portable copy of 
NVDA, along with Seamonkey, which is currently the portable email client 
I'm using. However, if you're a person or are working with a student for 
whom this is not an ideal solution, helping them set up their email 
account on Outlook.com may be a reasonable solution.

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      David Goldfield,
Assistive Technology specialist