Comment 26 for bug 195209

I doubt yet another obscure option will help anyone actually...dedicated hot keys to move to read / write / user list should be easier to use (because you don't have to know which window you're in) and are less intrusive (don't make the settings screens even more complicated)...

As for reading new messages, how do screen readers react to balloon tooltips popping up from the tray icon? I'd accept a patch that opens a balloon (or a small notification window) for each new message, and then you wouldn't have to move between read and write as often...