One of the campuses where I teach requires faculty to use the 
Outlook.com website. there's the regular version and a more accessible 
version. I haven't tried the regular version in about a year. At the 
time, it was usable, but there were lots of things I couldn't do or 
needed to do with the Jaws cursor.

The more accessible version is completely accessible, but it's a pita to 
work with because it's not very efficient. for example, when you're in 
the inbox, each subject line is a header, so you can easily jump from 
message to message, but you have to arrow up or down from that heading 
to read the sender or the date. You also have to arrow up to check boxes 
for deleting or moving messages, refresh Jaws manually to make sure it's 
checked, and arrow down again to make sure you checked the correct box. 
Then you need to use the find command to actually hit the Delete or Move 
link, or you can hit ctrl+home or ctrl+end and then arrow down or up to 
find the link. And of course, there's no indication either with Jaws or 
NVDA that the message is read or unread or that it has an attachment. 
finally, when you open a message and return to the inbox (after closing, 
deleting, or replying), focus rarely returns to the message you were on, 
so you have to skip through the headings to find it again.

I use this to collect student homework and send out my feedback/grades. 
It takes about three times as long to download and upload work with 
Outlook.com than it does with Thunderbird, which I'm allowed to use at 
the other institution where I teach. I find it incredibly frustrating 
and inefficient. I've got a backlog of homework assignments to return. 
I'll be sending it out this week. I'll probably spend two days (about 
twelve hours) doing it. That's time I could be reading essay drafts, 
planning lessons, or just relaxing over a cup of hot cocoa.


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