RE: ABBR and ACRONYM

• From: Pawson, David <DPawson@rnib.org.uk>
• Date: Fri, 30 Jan 1998 07:56:48 -0000
• To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
• Message-ID: <81B329C63AEFD0119929006097AB82E40FEBFF@priory.rnib.org.uk>

> > Sorry is this is a dumb question but what exactly is the
> > difference between ABBR and ACRONYM? And as ACRONYM seems to
> > be in the latest HTML4 spec and ABBR is not is it more
> > sensible to use ACRONYM?
> 
	One difference we (RNIB) need to recognise,
	for an acronym, presented to a low end synth speech
	system 'reading' a page, the acronym needs to be 
	'spaced out', such that RNIB becomes R N I B,
	whereas this is not necessary with an 'abbrev' which can
	(often) be 'read out' without being 'spelled out' - if you 
	catch my drift. 

	This (IMHO) necessitates differentiation between the two.
	How many authors appreciate such finesse I am unsure.

	regards, DaveP

Received on Friday, 30 January 1998 02:53:48 UTC