Re: abbr/acronym - repetitive use

Now, I will not argue the point too enthusiastically, and mean no offense,
but here's my take...

To engage in specific behaviors which favor one population group over
another is discrimination.

The term "discriminatory" is not inherently immoral or "evil," for I hope
each of us are discriminating individuals -- going about our daily business
making all kinds of distinctions: it's how we make sense out of this
(oftentimes) senseless world.

In the situation to which I was referring, the repeated use of
acronym/abbreviation tags provides information to people using AT which is
not equally available to people who do not use AT -- it's an inequity
present only because HTML allows this to happen (and the developer
implements it).

Given such design, and despite good intentions, my access to and use of the
information is not comparable to the access to and use of that information
by one who experiences a relevant disability. That I, as a temporarily
enabled individual, must scoll back to earlier copy to recall the full
title of an acro/abbr while those using AT are provided the complete
information each time is discriminatory practice.

Bill Williams



                                                                                              
                    Kynn Bartlett                                                             
                    <kynn-edapta@idy        To:     "William R Williams/R5/USDAFS"            
                    llmtn.com>              <wrwilliams@fs.fed.us>, w3c-wai-ig@w3.org         
                    Sent by:                cc:                                               
                    w3c-wai-ig-reque        Subject:     Re: abbr/acronym - repetitive use    
                    st@w3.org                                                                 
                                                                                              
                                                                                              
                    11/21/01 01:03                                                            
                    PM                                                                        
                                                                                              
                                                                                              




At 1:01 PM -0800 11/21/01, William R Williams/R5/USDAFS wrote:
>In this fashion, individuals who are temporarily enabled are expected to
>remember the meaning of the acro/abbr and so it should be, as well, for
>individuals experiencing relevant disabilities. Web presentation does not
>really change this logic; in fact, repeated use of the
acronym/abbreviation
>tags at each instance seems discriminatory in itself.

Hold on a sec here -- there's nothing discriminatory in using <abbr>
at every abbreviation.  It may be pointless for other reasons, but
there's nothing discriminatory about doing so.

--Kynn

--
Kynn Bartlett <kynn@idyllmtn.com>
http://www.kynn.com/

Received on Wednesday, 21 November 2001 16:55:47 UTC