- From: Colin Lieberman <clieberman@dralegal.org>
- Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2005 14:22:55 -0800
- To: <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
I've really been enjoying this discussion. Very enlightening. Thanks to all of you. Here is the way we've handled this quandary where I work (you can see this implemented at http://www.dralegal.org): We do not use the acronym tag because it will be deprecated. I'm not 100% certain that abbr will be included in IE7, but I think I remember reading on a Microsoft blog that it will. For the meantime, we use the abbr tag, and additionally make abbreviations like to our site glossary (which will also be a Level 3 requirement under WCAG 2.0). By using the title attribute of the a tag (with text that is redundant to that in the abbr tag), we ensure that all users can get tool-tips of the abbreviations. Also, provided screen readers are set to read titles, they will read all the abbreviations correctly. Additionally, but using links to the site glossary, users with motor disabilities can tab to abbreviations, and follow the link, to get the expanded form. We do not use these measures where meaning is obvious from context (such as a parenthetical explanation). For common abbreviations (such as US state abbreviations), these are marked-up only at their first occurrence on each page, for users who are unfamiliar with the abbreviation. For less common abbreviations, we try to mark them once per paragraph. Again, you can see how this works in practice at http://www.dralegal.org. Colin Lieberman IT Manager Disability Rights Advocates 449 15th Street, Suite 303 Oakland California 94612
Received on Tuesday, 22 November 2005 22:23:27 UTC