Tangerang, Kartunet - One of the most beneficial and essential internet facilities for all internet users is Email. Email, which is short for Electronic mail, functions similarly to traditional letter writing, but without the need for printing and with digital delivery. Furthermore, messages are delivered instantly upon sending, without the need for stamps or other costs. Having an email address is also mandatory because it acts like a key to unlock many doors in the internet wilderness. Email is not just used for correspondence or sending messages. Many websites or internet facilities require an email address to access them. For instance, if you want to create an account on social media websites like Facebook and Twitter, create a blog on Blogspot or WordPress, or apply for job vacancies, all of them require an email address during the registration phase. Because email is so important, let's learn how to use Google's free email service.
About Gmail
An email address is marked with an @ (at) sign that connects the username and the email service provider's website. For example, the email address dimas1988@gmail.com, the word “dimas1988” is the username (can be a combination of letters and numbers without spaces), while “gmail.com” is the email service provider's site. There are many email services besides Gmail, such as Yahoo or Hotmail. However, this time you will learn to use Google's email service called Gmail. Besides being free and having a relatively large capacity of about 15GB, Gmail is also one of the most accessible emails when accessed by screen readers. Furthermore, there are many other facilities available if you have a Gmail account, as it is integrated with Google's services.
Creating an Email Account in Gmail
To create an email address in Gmail, follow these steps.
- Launch Mozilla Firefox or any other browser you prefer.
- Press Alt+d to go to the address bar, then type gmail.com and press Enter. Wait for the site to finish loading.
- Once the site is open, press Insert+F7 to display the list of links.
- Navigate the open Gmail page with the up/down arrows. Look for a link related to Sign up, create account, or create new account, depending on the language used on your Google website. If the browser has previously been used to open a Gmail account, look for add account. Press enter.
- After opening the link, press the letter F as a shortcut to find the form until the computer says “First Name”. This “First Name” is the first form we need to fill out.
- Type your first name, for example, if your full name is Andini Aisyah, type Andini, and press Tab when finished. (Some screen readers require you to press Enter first to activate the form, so if you press the letter F and the computer says “First Name” but then you can't type any letters, you must press Enter first).
- Here we will be asked to fill in the last name. Type your last name, which is Aisyah, and press Tab when finished.
- Next, the screen reader will say: “Choose user Name”. Here, type the desired email name, for example: Andin2000, and press Tab when finished.
- When you press tab, the screen reader will indicate if the username you previously entered is already taken, such as “that username is taken”. In this case, you must change the email username you previously entered to be more varied or longer, making it less likely to be already in use by someone else.
- However, if you are reluctant to search for an alternative name, Gmail already provides options for you below the username input box. You just need to select an available name.
- Place the cursor on the desired username, and press Enter.
- Press tab once to go to “create a password” or the field for entering your password.
- Type your desired password. The password should be between 8 and 16 characters. Use a combination of letters and numbers and avoid using common words that are easy for others to guess. Be careful when typing your password to avoid mistakes, as the Screen Reader does not vocalize the letters you type, but only asterisks (*). The screen also does not display the characters you type.
- After typing the password, press Tab once more, and here we are asked to re-enter the password. Type the same password as you typed before.
- Press Tab to the date of birth column. Here there is a combo box form specifically for the month. Press Enter to select the month name, then Up Arrow to find the desired month, then press Enter. Then Tab to go to the date, type the 2-digit birth date, press Tab again to enter the year column, type the 4-digit birth year.
- Press Tab once to the gender column, and the screen reader will say “I am”. Press Enter to bring up the options “rather not say”, “Male”, and “Female”, then use the up/down arrows to select the appropriate gender and press Enter.
- Press Tab twice to the mobile number column. Press Enter, then type your mobile number. In the browser, +62 is usually already written, so you just need to add your mobile number without the initial zero. For example, if your number is 082310301799, just type 82310301799 after +62, then press Tab.
- Move to the column for a recovery email address. This will function if your new email encounters problems. But if you don't have one, leave it blank.
- Press tab until you reach the Next step button, then press enter.
- A consent page will appear. Press tab until you reach the Scroll to agree button, then press enter.
- Then two options, cancel and agree button, will appear. Press tab and enter on the I agree button.
- Sometimes Gmail does not ask for verification, and your email address is created immediately. But if a verification page appears, choose how you want to receive the verification code, either via text SMS or a phone call (voice call) from Google to the number you previously entered. Select the radio button, then tab and enter on Continue.
- Once we have received the code, type it into the verification field, then press Enter on continue.
- If all these steps have been performed correctly, we will receive information that the email was successful, and the Screen Reader will read a welcome message to your new email.
- Press the arrow key or the letter B to find the Continue to Gmail button, then press enter.
Making Your Google Email Display Accessible
The standard view of Gmail email is difficult to access with a Screen Reader. Recognizing that many Google email users are visually impaired, the old display is still provided, but we need to change it. To change the Google display to the accessible Basic HTML view, here's how:
- Press Ctrl+Home to place the cursor at the beginning of the page.
- Using the up/down arrows, find the Basic HTML view button, then press enter.
- The Gmail page will then reload and present a lighter and more accessible display for Screen Readers.
Saving Basic HTML View as Default
To ensure our email always appears in basic view every time it's activated, we can save it by:
- Pressing Ctrl+Home to place the cursor at the beginning of the page.
- Pressing Insert+F7 to gather the list of links.
- Pressing the down arrow until the computer says: “Set basic HTML as default view”, then press Enter.
Sending an Email
To send an email, follow these steps.
- Press Ctrl+Home to place the cursor at the beginning of the page.
- Press Insert+F7 to display the list of links.
- Press the letter C until the computer says: “Compose Mail”, then press Enter.
- Usually, the cursor is directly in the “To” position (where you type the recipient's email address). To confirm, press the up arrow. If pressing the up arrow once or twice makes the computer say: “To”, then the cursor is indeed in that position. If the cursor is correctly in that position, press the down arrow to return to the field for typing the recipient's email address.
- If pressing the up arrow does not make the computer say: “To”, press Ctrl+Home to place the cursor at the beginning of the page, then press the letter F until the Screen Reader says: “To”.
- Type the recipient's email address, for example, dimas1988@yahoo.co.id, then press Tab once when finished.
- Here we will be asked to enter CC (carbon copy). CC or carbon copy is for sending a copy of the email. Type the address of the recipient for the carbon copy, or leave it blank if there isn't one.
- Press Tab once more, here we are asked to enter BCC (blind carbon copy). This section can be left blank if there isn't one.
- Press Tab once again, here we are asked to enter the Subject of our email. Type the Subject or topic of the email you are sending.
- Press Tab several times until the computer says: “Message Body.” Here, type the content of the message.
- If you want to insert an image, a Word file, or any other file into the email you are sending, you can attach it.
- To attach a file, after filling the subject field, press Tab until the screen reader says attach file browse button, press Enter to open the file upload dialog box, then Tab or Shift Tab to navigate to the folder where the data is located. Once you find the desired file, press Enter, navigate the arrow to the data to be sent, then Enter.
- Press Tab once; if there are other files to send, repeat the same steps for those files.
- Once finished, press Tab to the email content, type the email content, then Tab back to the send button, and press Enter.
Keterangan:
- When filling the "To" field, you are not allowed to press Enter. If you want to send to more than one address, separate them with commas.
- In the email body, you are allowed to press Enter to move to a new paragraph.
- The difference between CC and BCC is: If an email address is in CC, every person receiving the email will know all other recipients. Whereas if an email address is in BCC, the recipient will not know who else the email was sent to. They will only know the original sender.
Now, practice typing the content of the letter you wish to send. For example, send the following letter to the email address dimas1988@gmail.com with the subject “Question” and content roughly as follows:
Hi Dimas, I'm Andin, one of the computer training participants. I wanted to ask if it's true that we can earn money through the internet? How does it work? Thank you. Regards
After finishing typing the email, press tab once to go to the send button, then press Enter to send the email you have created.
Signing Out of Gmail
It's good practice to sign out of your Gmail account every time you finish using email. This is a precaution to prevent anyone from misusing your email address. Especially if the computer you are using is shared, don't forget to sign out every time you finish. To do this, follow these steps:
- After finishing writing an email, press Insert + F7 to display the list of links.
- Press the letter S to find “Sign out”, then press enter.
Reading Incoming Email List
We can read incoming emails by following these steps.
- Activate your email by opening your browser, going to the address bar, typing gmail.com, and pressing enter.
- If you haven't signed out, the browser usually displays your email content automatically.
- If not, you can select an email address that has previously been logged into on that browser, or if none are listed, press enter on the “Add account” link.
- Enter your full email address, then press enter on “next”, enter your password, and press enter again.
- Press Ctrl+Home to place the cursor directly at the beginning of the page.
- Press the letter T once to go to the table within the Inbox view. We use this command because Google's email display is in a table format.
- When we press the letter T to go to the table, the Screen Reader will say: “Column one row one, check box not check.”
- Here we will use table reading commands to read the list of incoming messages. Press Ctrl+Alt+down arrow to read the incoming email.
- Press Ctrl+Alt+right arrow again to go to the next column (Subject).
- Press Ctrl+Alt+right arrow again to go to the 4th column (delivery time).
- After the cursor is in the 4th column, press Ctrl+Alt+left arrow until you return to the first column.
- Once in the first column, press Ctrl+Alt+down arrow to move to the 2nd row.
- And so on.
Note: If the Screen Reader does not read the email list display as a table, you can press the letter X to move between checkboxes, as each incoming email is marked with a checkbox. Then use the up/down arrows to browse the email sender and subject. Press enter on the subject of the email you wish to open.
Opening an Email
After reading the list of incoming emails, you might want to read the content of one of the messages. Therefore, try the following steps.
- Place the cursor on the 3rd column (subject) of one of the emails, then press Enter once found.
- Press the letter H until the computer reads out the sender's name of the email you opened.
- Press the down arrow until you find the content of the email you opened.
- Read the email content using standard reading commands.
Replying to an Email
After reading an email, you might want to reply to it. To do so, follow these steps.
- Open the email you wish to reply to, or proceed directly to the next step if it's already open.
- From the email content, press the up arrow until you find the “Reply” link, then press Enter. The cursor will be directly in the “To” column (where you type the recipient's email address). Alternatively, you can use ALT+Shift+R.
- This section will automatically be filled with the email address of the sender.
- Press Tab several times until the computer says: ”Message body.” Type your reply content.
- Press Tab once to go to the “Send” button, then press Enter.
- Alternatively, you can also reply to the email content using “Quick reply” by directly typing your answer at the end after reading the email content, where a quick reply form is available.
Returning to Inbox
After reading one of the emails, you might not want to reply but instead want to read another email. Therefore, we need to return to the inbox. Here's how:
- Press Ctrl+Home to return to the beginning of the page.
- Press Insert+F7 to display the list of links.
- Press the letter I until the computer says “Inbox”, then press Enter.
- Proceed as explained above to read the list of incoming emails.
Forwarding an Email
When reading an email in your inbox and wishing to forward it to someone else, the steps to take are:
- Press Shift+H to go to the email address heading.
- Then press Tab several times until the Screen Reader says forward. Alternatively, you can use ALT+Shift+F.
- Type the recipient's address.
- Press tab on the subject or message body if you want to add text.
- Press Tab several times until you reach the send button, then press enter.
Deleting Incoming Emails
After reading the content of an email, sometimes you might want to delete it. The steps are as follows:
- Display the email you want to delete.
- Press Tab or the letter B to find the button until the screen reader says “delete” or “archive”, then press Enter.
- If you choose “delete”, the email will be permanently removed from the inbox and cannot be retrieved if needed.
- However, if “Archive” is selected, the email will be moved from the inbox to the archive and can be searched for at any time using the mail search facility.
Congratulations! You now have your own email address. Always remember your email username and password. Because if you forget them and can no longer access your account, many of your contacts will be lost. (DPM)