[Trainer-Talk] Outlook or Gmail, and which Gmail?

Thu May 14 20:34:20 UTC 2020

Dear Dean,

Here is how I use Gmail Webmail interface. I have been using Gmail for the past dozen or so years. I really love how nicely accessible the Gmail interface is with JAWS, or any screen reader. Even using with Narrator is useful.

OK, so how do you do this? I'd say, before trying the key commands I will mention below, be aware that you may have to enable the keyboard shortcuts for Gmail. Just open up the Gmail page, login, or whatever, and then turn off the JAWS virtual PC cursor. Then press ALT+question mark (ALT+Shift+/) to open up the Gmail keyboard shortcuts. After that you may have to either turn virtual cursor back on, hit your links list command, and then press E for "enable" and press Enter. Or, you can just tab to the Enable link and press Enter. This will enable the keyboard shortcuts for Google.

You can continue reading the list of commands on that same page, which are laid out in a table, which is always useful. Or if you just want to jump straight into the dealing with email, just hit escape to jump back to the Inbox.
With the Virtual PC cursor off, you can hit U to go to the list of messages. Pressing X will select a message. O opens the message under the cursor to read it. Up and down arrows scroll through messages. Shift+3 on the upper row of keyboard deletes a message if selected. E archives selected message(s)

To read messages I usually enable the virtual PC cursor again. Then using my heading commands or others to read. To go back to my messages, I turn off virtual PC again, then hit U.

Please refer to the Gmail keyboard shortcuts I explained earlier. Good luck. If you need any more help, please do let us know. Or email me.

Happy emailing and have an awesome day!

Humberto

“Positive thinking leads to a positive attitude which leads to positive actions which lead to positive outcomes.”
— ME

On May 14, 2020, at 7:24 AM, Dean Martineau via Trainer-Talk <trainer-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:

Thank you for writing to the list. I look forward to any help I can get with the Gmail Standard interface. I haven’t figured out the rhythm of using it. I use JAWS, so does my student. That may be part of the problem. She uses Chrome, which wasn’t the browser the help document I read suggested, but I can’t imagine why not.

I haven’t figured out how to methodically deal with mail. I go to a message. When I press X to select, JAWS announces ‘not selected’ no matter how often I press it. The help document said to press shift+tab to get to options for dealing with the selected message, but it usually doesn’t work. So I feel ignorant and incompetent, and can’t teach this yet. The student wants to stick with the web interface rather than switching to Outlook. I will study the help document more and probably write to Google Accessibility Support, but this isn’t effortless.

Thanks again.

Dean

From: Nimer Jaber <nimerjaber1 at gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2020 9:10 PM
To: List for teachers and trainers of adaptive technology <trainer-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Dean Martineau <topdot at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Trainer-Talk] Outlook or Gmail, and which Gmail?

Hello,

I use the standard mode of Gmail, and prefer it by far to any email client. I am happy to discuss this with you further if you are curious as to why.

As for teaching, this depends on how much time I have with an individual, how proficient they are at basic web navigation/screen reading usage, etc. In my view, trainers aren't doing enough to teach web apps, and standard Gmail is only one example of such web apps. It is vital that students learn these to improve productivity and access to the web and many we-based apps, but it is also vital that a person learns basic screen reader concepts first, in my view.

So, if a person is a bit more advanced or we have more time, I teach Gmail's standard interface. For a Senior or someone wanting something very basic, Windows Mail works just fine.

Thanks.

On Wed, May 13, 2020 at 7:21 AM Dean Martineau via Trainer-Talk <trainer-talk at nfbnet.org <mailto:trainer-talk at nfbnet.org> > wrote:

Hello. I'm an Outlook devotee for mail, and that's what is used in my
primary training environment. Now I'm training a business owner used to
using the Gmail interface.

Those of you who have explored the Gmail interface, has anybody decided that
they prefer it over a desktop e-mail client?

Which of the two presentations, standard or basic HTML View, do you find
better? I've been reading about Standard view, and don't find it intuitive
for me to learn and teach.

Thoughts appreciated.

Dean

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