Re: Best practices for screen readers

Hi Andy,

>> That's why I said "can" and not "should".

Thats fine.

>> Why is it bad advice? 

Basically statements like:

>>> 2. Is there a way to make the screen reader know that a number is a
>>> > > phone number or street address so it reads 2-9-1-6 instead of 2,916?
> 
>> > I'm not aware of any reliable way to achieve this without adding extra
>> > (unsemantic) tags. This will probably work, but it's not so pretty.
> 
> You can mark up a phone number (indeed, a whole address) using semantic 
> hCard microformat markup:

Can be easily misinterpreted and applied. And I agree with John Foliot
when he said:

> David's response is (IMHO) the best way:  mark things up in a
> semantically rich (structural... I already fouled up there once  from
> this thread) way, *AND LEAVE IT TO THE A T TO FIGURE THINGS OUT*.

The structure is the key that the UA hangs on on while it's great when
presentation can be enhanced/improved etc
but it can be hit and miss. Not that your advice about using semantic
markup was in itself bad but why hcard microformat markup?

Do any screen readers that you are aware of support it; JAWS, Wineyes
etc or any other assistive technology devices?

If a microformat that is not supported by a user agent is used to markup
content instead of a supported
element/attribute combination from the (X)HTML specification, then to my
mind that could be problematic for
some users. This is something that I feel it is important to be aware of
when applying new languages etc.

Ask yourself this. Is a microformat a specification that has broad
support? Or is it a case of drumming up your own DTD's that
support whatever microformat you wish to create?

>> a US which is not microforamt aware?

Well, I don't don't know what a US is.

>> I've never found guessing to be a very good way of assesing a technology 
>> ;-)

That why its good to be informed.

Josh



Andy Mabbett wrote:
> joshue.oconnor@ncbi.ie wrote:
> 
>>> You can mark up a phone number (indeed, a whole address) using
>>> semantic hCard microformat markup:
> 
>> Maybe you can, as you suggest, use these microformats in this way
>> but be careful as that doesn't mean that you should. 
> 
> That's why I said "can" and not "should".
> 
>> Many user agents don't even fully support HTML never mind the new kid 
>> on the block. I would be concerned that that is just bad advice.
> 
> Why is it bad advice? What effect will use of microformat markup have, in 
> a US which is not microforamt aware?
> 
>> Its interesting to me that the advent of these microformats is an 
> indication 
>> of future possibilities but I guess that its application, especially 
> relating 
>> to disability, is very limited.
> 
> I've never found guessing to be a very good way of assesing a technology 
> ;-)
> 
> #~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#
> 
> "John Foliot" <jfoliot@stanford.edu> wrote:
> 
>> The statement "...<div class="paragraph"> does not equal <p>..." still
>> stands!
> 
> Not disputed; not least because I never said that it does.
> 


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Received on Monday, 9 October 2006 10:12:43 UTC