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A survey of blind users on the usability of email applications

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Abstract

Blind users face many challenges and obstacles when using computers at home and in the workplace, including difficulties in accessing web sites and using corporate software. A detailed understanding of usability problems in common email applications can inform designs that will provide improved usability. To help understand the challenges faced, a web-based survey on email usage by blind screen reader users was conducted. This paper presents the results of the survey of 129 blind users, which reveal several important facets of email applications that can be improved for blind users. The paper also discusses the specific challenges that are faced by blind users when using desktop and web-based email software.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the state chapters of the National Federation of the Blind for assisting us with recruiting respondents. This paper is an expanded version of the paper presented at CWUAAT and published in “Designing Inclusive Interactions.”

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science and Information Technologies, Frostburg State University, Frostburg, MD, USA

    Brian Wentz

  2. Department of Biomedical Informatics and Intelligent Systems Program, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Harry Hochheiser

  3. Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Jonathan Lazar

  4. Department of Computer and Information Sciences and Universal Usability Laboratory, Towson University, Towson, MD, USA

    Jonathan Lazar

Authors
  1. Brian Wentz
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  2. Harry Hochheiser
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  3. Jonathan Lazar
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Brian Wentz.

Appendix: Survey structure

Appendix: Survey structure

The following is a text description of the survey structure and included questions. Questions that triggered additional questions about a topic are preceded by an asterisk. Since it was an adaptive survey, some questions were only asked if the answer to a previous question triggered their display.

1.1 Demographics

  1. 1.

    What is your gender?

  2. 2.

    What is your approximate age?

  3. 3.

    Are you currently employed?

  4. 4.

    If employed, what is your current occupation?

  5. 5.

    Approximately how many years have you been using email?

  6. 6.

    How many times per day do you check your email?

  7. 7.

    Where do you primarily use email?

  8. 8.

    How many hours do you typically spend per day using email?

  9. 9.

    Are you currently enrolled in any academic classes at a college or university?

1.2 Spam and phishing

  1. 10.

    Please select the statement that best describes your experience with spam emails:

    1. a.

      Spam is not a problem to me

    2. b.

      Spam is somewhat of an annoyance to me

    3. c.

      Spam is very frustrating and embarrassing at times

    4. d.

      Spam is so frustrating it almost causes me to not use email

  2. 11.

    *Are you using a spam filter?

  3. 12.

    How often does your spam filter mistakenly filter out legitimate email?

    1. a.

      Never

    2. b.

      Very rarely

    3. c.

      Once or twice a week

    4. d.

      Several times a week

    5. e.

      Almost every day

  4. 13.

    Other than a spam filter, what other things do you do if any to handle spam emails?

  5. 14.

    Phishing refers to an email that tries to make you think that it is from a legitimate web site like your bank or credit card company when it is really an attempt to obtain your personal information for unauthorized or illegal purposes.

  6. 15.

    Have you experienced a problem with phishing emails?

  7. 16.

    How difficult is it for you to determine whether an email is a phishing email or legitimate email? Please rate the level of difficulty on a scale of 1–5 with 5 being the most difficult.

1.3 Email address book

  1. 17.

    *Do you use an email address book?

  2. 18.

    What is the level of difficulty that you experience when you add contacts to your email address book? Please rate the level of difficulty on a scale of 1–5 with 5 being the most difficult.

  3. 19.

    Would you benefit from an email function that would allow you to automatically add contacts to your address book by checking a box when replying to an email?

1.4 Email calendar

  1. 20.

    *Do you use an email calendar?

  2. 21.

    What is the level of difficulty that you experience when using the email calendar? Please rate the level of difficulty on a scale of 1–5 with 5 being the most difficult.

  3. 22.

    Please describe the problems that you have with your email calendar.

1.5 Email reminders

  1. 23.

    *Do you use email reminders?

  2. 24.

    What is the level of difficulty that you experience when you create or view your email reminders? Please rate the level of difficulty on a scale of 1–5 with 5 being the most difficult.

  3. 25.

    Please describe the problems that you experience with your email reminders.

1.6 Email search and organization

  1. 26.

    Please describe how you know if there are important or flagged messages in your email inbox.

  2. 27.

    What is the level of difficulty that you experience when you attempt to sort your email messages? Please rate the level of difficulty on a scale of 1–5 with 5 being the most difficult.

  3. 28.

    What is the level of difficulty that you experience when you attempt to search for email messages? Please rate the level of difficulty on a scale of 1–5 with 5 being the most difficult.

  4. 29.

    What amount of email do you estimate is stored in your email inbox on a regular basis?

  5. 30.

    Please select any other method that you use, if any, to organize your email messages:

    1. a.

      Responding to or deleting the message immediately

    2. b.

      Waiting until the email is no longer needed and it can be deleted

    3. c.

      Storing the message in a folder

    4. d.

      Using a third-party search product like Google desktop

1.7 Open-ended email improvement question

  1. 31.

    If you could name the most important improvements that could be made to email software to make it more accessible and usable to you, what would they be?

1.8 Desktop email

The following question relates to desktop email software such as Microsoft Office Outlook or Lotus Notes.

  1. 32.

    *Do you use any desktop email software—not web-based email?

  2. 33.

    *Please select the type of email software that you primarily use:

    1. a.

      Microsoft Outlook Express

    2. b.

      Windows Mail

    3. c.

      Microsoft Outlook 2000

    4. d.

      Microsoft Outlook 2002

    5. e.

      Microsoft Outlook 2003

    6. f.

      Microsoft Outlook 2007

    7. g.

      Lotus Notes 6

    8. h.

      Lotus Notes 7

    9. i.

      Lotus Notes 8

    10. j.

      Novell GroupWise 5

    11. k.

      Novell GroupWise 6

    12. l.

      Novell GroupWise 7

    13. m.

      Other, not listed

1.9 Microsoft outlook

  1. 34.

    *Do you use the auto-complete feature in Microsoft Office Outlook?

  2. 35.

    How satisfied are you with the auto-complete feature? Please select your level of satisfaction on a scale of 1–5, with 5 being the most satisfied.

  3. 36.

    *Do you use Microsoft Outlook Rules to organize messages?

  4. 37.

    How difficult is it to set up the Rules? Please rate the level of difficulty on a scale of 1–5 with 5 being the most difficult.

  5. 38.

    *Do you change the settings on your email folders to make them easier to use with your screen reader?

  6. 39.

    Please explain which settings you typically change.

1.10 Web-based email

  1. 40.

    *Do you use web-based email?

  2. 41.

    Please rate the level of importance of web-based email to you on a scale of 1–5 with 5 being the most important.

  3. 42.

    *Please select the type of web-based email that you primarily use:

    1. a.

      Gmail

    2. b.

      Yahoo Mail

    3. c.

      Hotmail

    4. d.

      AOL

    5. e.

      SquirrelMail

    6. f.

      Outlook Web Access 2003

    7. g.

      Outlook Web Access 2007

    8. h.

      Lotus Notes Webmail

    9. i.

      GroupWise Webmail

    10. j.

      Other, not listed

1.11 Outlook web access

  1. 43.

    Please describe what problems if any you experience with Outlook Web Access 2003.

  2. 44.

    Please describe what problems if any you experience with Outlook Web Access 2007.

  3. 45.

    Have you ever used Outlook Web Access 2007 Light?

  4. 46.

    How well does Outlook Web Access 2007 Light work to correct the accessibility problems of Outlook Web Access?

    1. a.

      No noticeable improvement

    2. b.

      Some improvement

    3. c.

      Major improvement

  5. 47.

    Please describe the problems if any that you experience with Outlook Web Access 2007 Light.

1.12 Yahoo mail

  1. 48.

    Please describe the features if any that you like about Yahoo Mail.

  2. 49.

    Please describe the problems if any that you experience when using Yahoo Mail.

1.13 Gmail

  1. 50.

    Please describe the features if any that you like about Gmail.

  2. 51.

    Please describe the problems if any that you experience when using Gmail.

1.14 Hotmail

  1. 52.

    Please describe the features if any that you like about Hotmail.

  2. 53.

    Please describe the problems if any that you experience when using Hotmail.

1.15 SquirrelMail

  1. 54.

    Please describe the features if any that you like about SquirrelMail.

  2. 55.

    Please describe the problems if any that you experience when using SquirrelMail.

1.16 Social networking

  1. 56.

    *Have you ever used an online social networking web site such as Facebook or MySpace?

  2. 57.

    Please describe the difficulties if any that you experience with the email features of the online social networking service such as Facebook or MySpace.

1.17 BrailleNote

  1. 58.

    *Do you use BrailleNote for email access?

  2. 59.

    How satisfied are you with the ability of BrailleNote to provide accessible email? Please rate your level of satisfaction on a scale of 1–5 with 5 being the most satisfied.

  3. 60.

    Please describe any limitations or problems that you experience when using BrailleNote.

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Wentz, B., Hochheiser, H. & Lazar, J. A survey of blind users on the usability of email applications. Univ Access Inf Soc 12, 327–336 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-012-0285-9

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