Re: Question on abbreviations (fwd)

Hmm. I agree that we need something more useful than "expand the first time
an abbreviation occurs" - since it is hard to know the first time a user will
come across it.

I think that translates to two requirements - one that says "provide
expansions for abbreviations or acronyms" is a checkpoint-type requirement
(in WCAG 1.0 already), and the other is techniques information that says some
abbreviations are so well known that they can be treated as words - the
acronyms RADAR, NATO, and the term OK all spring to mind, while others are
specific to an audience - the term "ER" springs to mind as a recent example.

Matt said that if we do this on a site-by-site basis we are likely to end up
with a lot of different definitions for the same term, but this is in fact
the way that we use language. Where there is only one vaguely plausible
definition, the abbreviation in question is probably recognisable as a word,
or is something that can be done on a site-wide or larger basis.

Further thoughts on techniques: Creating a dictionary like wordnet, of
abbreviations, would allow us to give a URI class to an expansion that can be
used across different pages or sites - baby steps in a semantic web. But this
relies on having technology that can use it, and probably lives for the
moment in the realms of the ER (Evaluation and Repair Tools, or Emergency
Room?) group - I'll take it there and see if they can send us back some good
stuff for techniques that can be used.

Cheers

Charles McCN

On Thu, 28 Dec 2000, Kynn Bartlett wrote:

  At 08:04 AM 12/28/2000 , Anne Pemberton wrote:
  >         Expanding an abbreviation or acronym one time in a page/document is
  >insufficient for the user, no matter how onerous the task or expanding it.
  >I would prefer to see the rule state that every time an abbreviation or
  >acronym is used, it was exapandable by the user.

  Anne makes a good argument here; I'd also note that we wouldn't
  say "provide ALT text for a given image only on the first appearance
  of that image, and expect the user agent to consider all images with
  the same URI to have the same ALT text."

  I think that if abbreviation expansion is going to be -required- in
  some way, then that requirement shouldn't be based on first vs.
  subsequent appearances in the text; if an abbreviation is to be
  expanded, then all appearances of it should be expanded.

  The criteria should instead be based on an understanding of the
  audience and how the page is used, as well as the specifics of the
  abbreviations used.  There are many cases in which it would not
  be appropriate to expand -all- abbreviations but instead only
  expand -some- of them.  (E.g., do you expand WAI if writing to the
  WAI group?  What about writing to the XHTML-L group?  Do you supply
  expansions for XHTML-L on the XHTML-L group?  Do you expand the
  "E.g." I used at the start of this parenthetical diversion, and if
  so, _how_ do you expand it?)

  Abbreviation expansions in markup are useful.  What's needed,
  however, is not attention to how many times an abbreviation is
  expanded, but rather some sort of principles to allow the author
  to know when she should provide an abbreviation expansion.

  --Kynn




-- 
Charles McCathieNevile    mailto:charles@w3.org    phone: +61 (0) 409 134 136
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative                      http://www.w3.org/WAI
Location: I-cubed, 110 Victoria Street, Carlton VIC 3053, Australia
until 6 January 2001 at:
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Received on Thursday, 28 December 2000 14:17:39 UTC