Getting Started, Staying Connected

Keeping in touch with coworkers, updating supervisors, collaborating with classmates and submitting work are all musts in the telecommute reality of education or employment. With both on the rise Google provides Gmail and Hangouts services that make keeping in touch as easy as connecting an Internet ready device to the web. That is, until you access the web with screen reading, text-to-speech technology. Then, things get a bit more complicated.

Note the important distinction between “a bit more complicated” and “impossible. I have been utilizing Gmail services for at least 8 years, maybe longer. I can’t remember when I created my first Google account. In that time my primary method of accessing the web has been using Internet Explorer and JAWS for Windows screen reader.

I don’t claim to be the top expert on Google accessibility, but I can attest to usability over the years. Gmail has never been the most, or least, accessible e-mail platform available. In recent years, as HTML 5 has emerged and Google has begun leveraging the new web 2.0 I’ve found that if I want to just access my messages it is most easily accomplished through an e-mail client like Microsoft Outlook or Apple Mail.

That is, until recently. AS a graduate student attending online courses and working in groups that included people from around the world I was forced into a situation where I needed to access advanced Gmail features including the Hangouts Web App that can be accessed through a variety of methods. I had to explore all of the methods to figure out which was going to best serve my needs. In the process I had to learn to access the newest Gmail standard web interface, or how to navigate Google Plus. The documentation is most complete for using Gmail, and with my experience as a JAWS instructor I am adept at using manuals to learn to use an unfamiliar tool.

In the next few posts I will share what I learned about using Gmail Web Apps to access my e-mail and the Hangouts Web App. There is still a lot for me to find, and learn, but I hope that the explanations that follow will help someone else traverse the variety of existing documentation. Working professionals and students burning the midnight oil may not have the time to follow link after link, and interpret the instructions that have been provided in the Google documentation to the same level of success as a trainer. It would be ideal if the Web Apps were as intuitive for those using screen reading technology as it seems to be for those who do not require adaptive tools for accessing the technology, however this is the nature of the beast at this time.

AS Google continues to grow, and change with the demands of the web these documents will become outdated. I cannot promise that I will be able to keep up with the changes and continue to provide the most up-to-date information here. I always welcome questions and comments.