PRI-10 Abbreviations and acronyms

PRI-10 Abbreviations and acronyms

G. Vanderheiden's summary:

"4.2 Specify the expansion of abbreviations and acronyms. [Priority 2 for
the first occurrence of the acronym or abbreviation in a given document,
Priority 3 thereafter.]"

"An AC Member felt that to expand abbreviations and acronyms is good 
writing
style.  They did not feel that this checkpoint was an accessibility issue.
They knew of no user agents that support the ACRONYM or ABBR tag.   As a
result they felt that to should be priority 3.

"This is a similar situation as PRI -9.  Should an item be required before 
it
is supported by user agents?    This would help solve legacy problems in 
the
future.  But how much should it be required today?"


My response:

I essentially agree with the commenter. My comments are as follows:

{EH: Delete this. I think (4/23/99, added word "think") that this 
checkpoint is a "poison pill" that, while seemingly innocuous, places an 
untenable burden upon the Web developer. I think that it will discourage an 
inordinate number of people from striving for triple-AAA compliance and 
maybe the other compliance levels. If it must be retained, I suggest the 
following change:

4.2 Specify the expansion of first use of abbreviations and acronyms within 
a document. [Priority 3] 
For example, in HTML, use the "title" attribute of the ABBR and ACRONYM 
elements. One can provide the expansion (especially of the first 
occurrence) in the main body of the document. Or one can link to a glossary 
(within the document or another document) that provides the expansion{EH: 
4/27/99}
Techniques for checkpoint 4.2}

{EH: Old. 4.2 Specify the expansion of abbreviations and acronyms. 
[Priority 2 for the first occurrence of the acronym or abbreviation in a 
given document, Priority 3 thereafter.] 
For example, in HTML, use the "title" attribute of the ABBR and ACRONYM 
elements. Or, provide the expansion (especially of the first occurrence) in 
the main body of the document. 
Techniques for checkpoint 4.2}


=============================
Eric G. Hansen, Ph.D.
Development Scientist
Educational Testing Service
ETS 12-R
Rosedale Road
Princeton, NJ 08541
(W) 609-734-5615
(Fax) 609-734-1090
E-mail: ehansen@ets.org

Received on Tuesday, 27 April 1999 16:16:58 UTC