Request for Keyboard Accessibility in Thunderbird/Seamonkey re: Altering Headers

David Goldfield <[email protected]> Sat, 18 Sep 2010 00:38:46 -0400
Newsgroups gmane.comp.mozilla.accessibility
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Hello.  I am a blind user of Mozilla products, particularly Seamonkey as 
well as Firefox.  I use screen readers to access my Windows computer 
with speech output using the NVDA screen reader, available from 
www.nvda-project.org.
I have several requests regarding keyboard accessibility accessing 
certain functions from within Seamonkey as well as Thunderbird.  These 
programs have many keyboard commands which benefits blind and sighted 
users alike, but I would like to offer the following requests which 
would make using your products even easier from the keyboard.


1.  My first request is regarding the implementation of keyboard 
commands to perform certain functions from within Thunderbird and 
Seamonkey regarding altering message headers.
I am unable to find a way of adding or removing the headers in my mail 
window, such as from, subject, date, etc.  I know that there is a button 
which, when clicked, invokes a menu which allows the user to add or 
remove specific headings but accessing this graphical button is awkward 
and, with NVDA, practically impossible.  Can a menu option or hotkey be 
added to allow blind users to access this feature via the keyboard?

2.  I would like the ability to choose the order of my headings, such as 
moving the "from" heading to the beginning of the row of headings.  I 
cannot find a method of doing this via menus as you can, let's say, with 
Outlook which can present a list of headings with "move up" and "move 
down" buttons.  Could Mozilla implement a similar system?

3.  While navigating the folder treeviews of items such as Inbox, 
Outbox, Trash, etc. could Mozilla allow keyboard users to input the 
first letter of the desired folder, such as pressing I for Inbox, T for 
Trash, etc.

4.  Would Mozilla consider implementing a hotkey which accesses the 
inbox folder from any other mail folder, such as shift-ctrl-I?  As the 
Inbox is probably the most commonly accessed folder this would allow 
blind users to quickly access this folder without the need to tab into 
the folder list and then navigate through the treeview.

5. Finally, would Mozilla consider implementing a user-controlled option 
allowing for the Inbox folder to be immediately opened and gaining focus 
at startup?  This would allow the message list to immediately become 
accessible without the need to first navigate to it?

I would be happy to test any of these features if Mozilla decides to try 
implementing them.  If you put the word out that you are considering 
adding any of these features I believe that many other blind users would 
like to test them as well, particularly on the Blind Mozilla list.

David Goldfield