LOL!!
Ditto!
Rick


At 12:12 PM 6/13/2003 -0400, Martin Courcelles wrote:
>Two minutes per spam Email?
>What the heck does he do, listen to them phonetically?
>This is a situation where the journalist is making the story bigger than
>the problem.
>I find it very easy to flag Spam and can detect it under oh 5 seconds.
>As for email readers launching attachments automatically, you can turn
>that off.  However, if you are so inclined to open unknown attachments,
>you shouldn't be using email on your computer.  Take my dad for example.
>
>He's sighted, but will always click on attachments regardless if it says
>"viagra" or "check me out, i'm naked".  Some people just don't pay
>attention.
>Okay, I'm done with my rant.
>martin
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: VICUG-L: Visually Impaired Computer Users' Group List
>[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Kelly Pierce
>Sent: June 12, 2003 7:40 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: E-mail spam dulls PC tool used by blind
>
>
>Here's an article with a level of insight that is rarely found in the
>mainstream press.
>
>Kelly
>
>     E-mail spam dulls PC tool used by blind
>
>The Oregonian
>     05/28/03
>
>by JEFFREY KOSSEFF
>
>
>     Clinton Lindgren laughs off the e-mail admonitions he receives to
>buy CHEAPER CAR INSURANCE.
>
>     The 36-year-old Portlander doesn't drive.
>
>     He's blind.
>
>     But he and other blind people are not laughing about the onslaught
>of e-mail advertising, or spam, impeding their use of Internet
>communications.
>
>     "It's really bad. I get tons and tons of it at home," said Lindgren,
>a business employment specialist with the Oregon Employment Department.
>He receives about 25 spam messages a day, and it takes him about 10
>minutes to sort through the mess.
>
>     Many blind people use screen-reader software that reads aloud the
>text of e-mail messages -- a communications breakthrough for them. While
>increasingly prevalent junk e-mail annoys most e-mail users, it's a
>bigger problem for many of the nation's 1.1 million blind people, who
>must listen to the ads before deciding whether to delete them.
>
>     In the next week, the Oregon Senate Business and Labor Committee
>plans to stage a hearing on an antispam bill that passed the House this
>month. Advocates for the blind said they welcome action on the problem,
>but they wonder whether the bill would accomplish much.
>
>     The Legislature's proposal, House Bill 2737, doesn't specifically
>address blind e-mail users, but it would require spammers to flag their
>e-mail for spam filters, and it would prohibit them from using deceptive
>subject lines.
>
>     Such provisions would ease e-mail browsing, but only if they are
>enforceable, said Frank Synoground, the Oregon Commission for the
>Blind's assistant director of rehabilitation services. Synoground said
>he doubts they are.
>
>     "These people who create the spam can send them in such a fashion
>that they are beyond arm's reach of law enforcement," said Synoground,
>who is blind.
>
>     In the past decade, screen-reader technology, combined with the
>Internet, has revolutionized communications for many blind people,
>enabling them to communicate quickly without having to rely on others to
>read correspondence for them.
>
>     The spread of spam has threatened to reverse some of the progress.
>Spam forces blind people to be more defensive in the way they approach
>their computer setups and to take more time checking their e-mail.
>
>     "Because we have to wade through everything, we can't just quickly
>glance through it," said Winslow Parker, who trains blind people such as
>him to use computers for the Oregon commission.
>
>     "Hi, how are you?" One student, Parker said, almost gave up using
>e-mail because spam was overwhelming her.
>
>     Parker has managed to limit the amount of spam he receives by using
>spam-filtering software and distributing his e-mail address as little as
>possible.
>
>     Screen readers read the name of the sender and subject, then give
>users the option of opening or deleting the message.
>
>     It's easy for Synoground, who receives about 20 spam messages a day,
>to catch spam with subject lines that contain words such as "Viagra" and
>"insurance." More difficult to flag are messages with deceiving subject
>lines, such as "Hi, how are you?" Some spammers include no subject line.
>
>     "If they're clever, then I do have to go in and open them up,"
>Synoground said.
>
>     Reading spam may not be laborious for people who can see it, but
>those who can't must listen to their screen readers attempt to pronounce
>the jumbled advertising. Opening some spam launches attachments, further
>bogging down screen readers.
>
>     Synoground said it takes up to two minutes for him to delete each
>spam message he opens, and he resents the speed bumps in his
>communications.
>
>     Before he used a screen reader, an assistant spent about five hours
>a week reading correspondence to him. E-mail has cut that to less than
>an hour, but spam has eroded the time savings, he said.
>
>     "It's such a helpful tool for a blind person," Synoground said.
>"It's a blessing and it's a challenge at the same time."
>
>     On high alert Spam is especially frustrating for screen-reader
>novices, said Curtis Chong, president of the National Federation of the
>Blind in Computer Science. Experienced users can set their readers to
>fast speeds -- as many as 500 words a minute -- and quickly delete spam.
>
>     "Anything that makes it more complicated is going to create a
>problem," said Chong, who is blind.
>
>     Once blind people master the software, Chong said, spam is not much
>more vexing to them than to sighted people. Blind people simply have to
>be on higher alert, he said.
>
>     "A perfect stranger wanting to write to me better be real careful
>how they word their subject line," Chong said. "My index finger is
>poised on that delete key."
>
>     Like many others, some blind people are fighting to reclaim
>unfettered e-mail usage.
>
>     Kelly Ford, an information technology consultant in the Seattle area
>who is blind, said his Internet service provider, EarthLink, provides
>spam filtering. But still, about 10 percent of his e-mail is spam.
>
>     To cover the gap, he installed his own filters to flag potential
>spam, placing the messages in a garbage folder but not deleting them.
>About one in 100 of the flagged e-mail messages is legitimate, said
>Ford, who had taught at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham before
>moving north.
>
>     "You just have to pay attention," Ford said.
>
>     Blind people should turn off the function in their e-mail programs
>that automatically display HTML, the code used to create Web pages, said
>Joe Clark, a Toronto-based consultant who specializes in making media
>more accessible for disabled people. HTML-based e-mail messages often
>are more time-consuming for screen readers.
>
>     "It's true, things are slower and more complicated for the blind
>person," Clark said. "But they need to take control of their destiny."
>
>     Jeffrey Kosseff: 503-294-7605; [log in to unmask]
>
>     Copyright 2003 Oregon Live. All Rights Reserved.
>
>
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 VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
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