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The article presents information on accessibility barriers for blind users who use screen readers like Window-Eyes and Access Systems to access websites. E-mail is an effective communication tool nowadays but websites can present certain barriers for blind people. To conduct the study, 15 blind users tested seven popular e-mail applications. The conclusion of the study was to improve e-mail applications including web-based interfaces, calendaring and the e-mail address book.

The article focuses on e-mail applications and evaluation of their usability by blind users. E-mail serves as an important tool for communication nowadays, but blind users using screen readers like System Acess to access websites can get barriers of accessibility and usability. To evaluate these problems, seven e-mail applications like Gmail and Yahoo Mail Classic were tested by 15 blind users. On basis of feedback, some changes to the testing process and questions were implemented.

Abstract: Numerous studies have investigated task performance times for selection from hierarchical menus, with structures containing many choices at each of a few levels (broad, shallow structures) generally outperforming structures containing fewer choices at each of many levels (narrow, deep structures). To see if these results applied to blind users who rely on screen reader software for computer access, we replicated an earlier published study, using 19 blind screen-reader users. Consistent with earlier studies, broader, shallow hierarchies outperformed narrow, deep hierarchies. Task performance times and hypertext lostness measures were correlated. Although further work will be needed to understand specific determinants of task performance rates, these results support the use of broad, shallow menus for blind as well as sighted users. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]