A Shout Out for Gaggle.Net--Attention to Accessibility Issues!

Gaggle provides a safe, secure, email service for teachers and students. Several years ago, I set up email accounts for some of my students who have visual impairments. The accounts were simple to set up and with some experimenting by the students, they found their email to be accessible using a screenreader. Our own school district does offer student email accounts, but they involve lots of red tape to set up, and turn out not to be keyboard/screenreader accessible. Thank heavens for Gaggle!
Then, a few weeks ago, I started to hear from my students that they could no longer access their email messages. I went to www.gaggle.net and discovered that Gaggle had changed the look of the service, giving it a Web 2.0 look. Well, it may have LOOKED wonderful, but it was no longer accessible via the keyboard and a screenreader. Another instance of companies trying to make the web more visually appealing, but in the process excluding some people. Sad, right?
But, here's the great part! I found a contact email address at Gaggle, and wrote to let them know how upset I was that my students could no longer access their email with a screenreader. Well, within an hour of my sending an email, I received a response from Gaggle, letting me know that they have switched all of our accounts back to the old, yet accessible, layout. I went back to check, and true to their word, the emails were accessible again! I was pleasantly surprised, as well as grateful to Gaggle for actually paying attention to accessibility issues of their consumers.
There was another wonderful outcome from this experience, and it came in the form of a letter one of our students wrote to Gaggle. I've copied it below, so please read on and celebrate one of our students being proactive and helping companies understand that attention to accessibility is important and appreciated.

To: admin@gaggle.net
My name is Karen A., and I have an email account with Gaggle; as a visually impaired person, I know how difficult it is to find an email server accessible to those of us who use screen-readers such as JAWS for Windows. One of these few email servers is Gaggle.
I would like to thank Emily and the rest of the Gaggle staff for helping to restore Gaggle to its original format so that VI students can continue benefiting from it. Not only does Gaggle allow me to send and receive emails and attachments efficiently, but it also allows me to communicate in a quick, easy manner that is increasingly one of the main forms of communication.
I am really appreciative of the fact that you take all of your student population in to account, so keep up the good work.
Sincerely,
Karen A.