MyMail

Posted on October 22nd, 2006 in by Ross Wynne

MyMail

What is MyMail?

To those that don’t know what it is MyMail is TCD’s email client for students of the college. It’s a web platform based directly on Horde which its developers admit does not comply with the standard Bobby test for web accessibility.

It was introduced in Summer 2004 as a replacement for Webmail much to the annoyance of accessibility advocates like the TCD Disability Service, the then Education Officer Daithí Mac Síthigh and myself. The reason isn’t 100% clear but I would personally cite the harsh cutbacks that was imposed across the college at the time. Horde is a free application and the previous application wasn’t.

So what’s my gripe with MyMail?

Firstly, screen readers (used by people with dyslexia and the visually impaired) have a hard time of navigating the interface to the point that it becomes unusable.

Secondly, the interface only allows basic text emails to be sent and not HTML emails which can be set up to produce the right formatting and font to make accessible emails.

Thirdly, MyMail is an application that increases SPAM. A bold statement I know. You know when you get a spam email and it loads a picture well at that point your email address is confirmed and you will always be on that spammers friends list!

So what can be done (and is being done)?

Well I ran for election as the student representative for the ISS Committee in Autumn 2004 and over the last two years I have raised the issue of MyMail whenever I could. ISS seem sympathetic to the issue and had promised to have a replacement for MyMail installed by the start of the Michaelmas term this year (i.e. right now) but at the ISS meeting on Thursday I was informed that the software vendors they were in negotiations with during the summer let them down but there will be a package in place if not during this academic year then for the start of the next.

2 Responses to 'MyMail'

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  1. David Barry said,

    on May 9th, 2007 at 10:43 PM

    What do you think of Squirral mail?

  2. Ross Wynne said,

    on May 11th, 2007 at 11:34 AM

    Quite tellingly on the SquirrelMail FAQ the question “How well does SquirrelMail conform to current Accessibility guidelines (W3C and Section 508)?” goes unanswered.
    However the options to limit images being automatically displayed and the ability to rule out the use of Javascript are promising.
    Perhaps the makers of the email interface could give the W3C rating (i.e. A, AA, AAA) it achieves otherwise it is unclear if it reaches any accessibility standard compliant level.

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