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April 13, 2004
Gmail Accesibility Update
I would like to bring to your attention a very interesting article by mark Pilgrim who is beta testing Gmail and talks about its look and feel.
According to Mark Gmail is built almost entirely in javascript thus making the use of JAWS (an online reading system for the visually impaired) extremely difficult (if not inaccessible by the sound of it). Here is Mark's final thoughts:
Gmail is the least web-like web application I have ever seen. It requires both Javascript and cookies in order to load at all. It uses frames in such a way that prevents bookmarking and breaks the back button, and frames can not be loaded in isolation because every frame relies on scripts defined in other frames. The entire application appears to have been designed to thwart reverse engineering (of the YahooPops and Hotmail Popper variety).
Furthermore, the most innovative feature of Gmail—the global keyboard shortcuts—appears to have been designed by vi users (j moves down, k moves up, and we are expected to memorize multi-key sequences for navigation). Yet by using fake links everywhere, Gmail throws away the most basic web feature, breaks useful browser-level innovations like Mozilla’s “Find as you type”, and breaks third-party products like JAWS and WindowEyes. So the target market for Gmail appears to be vi users who use Internet Explorer, and have a working pair of eyes.
In short, the only way to use Gmail is the way that the Gmail designers use Gmail. The only way Gmail could be less accessible is if the entire site were built in Flash.
Very interesting points and certainly sometyhing that Google must work on.
Harry Tzetzos @ Rugles.com - Website Marketing Services
Posted by Basileios at April 13, 2004 01:58 AM
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