What is the best email quoting for blind users?

[Geoff Shang]

Hi,

Most lists tend to have their own rules about this sort of thing.

Here are my views, in no particular order:

1.  I prefer to have the > signs in replies, so I know what is quoting and
    what is not.

2.  I prefer not to have > signs in forwards, as they serve no real purpose 
and multiple forwards can end up with multiple >'s at the start of each 
line, which is tedious to say the least.

3.  Most screen readers I know of can be configured not to speak the > 
sign.

4.  I know of at least one Email client, pine, which can be configured to 
not display quoted material.  It may well rely on the presence of > signs 
however.

5.  Several Email clients allow you to configure the quote character or 
disable it entirely.  Pine even allows you the ability to edit it on a per 
message basis.

6.  Some lists prefer the so-called jepardy style of quoting (i.e. answers 
first).  I don't, since it means that you can't intermingle quoted text 
with your responses.

7.  Jepardy style quoting is most often on lists with Windows users, where 
the OUtlook family of Email clients is set to include the original message 
by default, which most Blind people may not even be aware of.  This can 
often result in an entire thread being quoted right back to the beginning 
with most having no idea that it's happening.

But now I'm digressing.

Geoff.