- From: Matthew Ratzloff <matt@builtfromsource.com>
- Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2007 17:07:57 -0700 (PDT)
- To: public-html@w3.org
On Thu, March 15, 2007 4:46 pm, Laurens Holst wrote: >> Abbr and Acronym should be condensed into Abbr; Acronym is a subset of >> Abbr (Abbr being an abbreviation of a word or phrase, and Acronym being >> an abbreviation of a phrase). Usage should be that only the first >> instance of an unknown abbreviation is annotated; all subsequent >> instances should not, under any circumstances, require Abbr tags. >> Screen reading software should be intelligent enough to render that >> abbreviation as specified in the "title" attribute for the entire length >> the document. > > Actually, I think they should, they should just not need a title > attribute. Oh, I agree with you. I meant to include, "If it's not found in the software's definition list...". That is, only if it's an uncommon or made-up abbreviation should an Abbr tag really be necessary for proper screen reader support (although the specification should encourage all abbreviations to use Abbr tags), and the "title" attribute be specified. But let's be honest--99% of websites won't bother with any of that (and shouldn't, in the case of things like "Mr" or "Dr"), so as a practical matter the onus has to be on the screen readers to pick up the slack. -Matt
Received on Friday, 16 March 2007 00:08:06 UTC