Re: Helping Jaws (et al) pronounce our company name

Previously you wrote: I had an ear-opening experience listening to 
Jaws sputter out the contents of our website. It gave a rather bad 
rendition of our company name "Unum"

John this is an interesting question that's resulted in a very 
interesting string. I do agree with the thought that pronunciation 
belongs in CSS; but I'm a little concerned about the spirit of that 
intent.

If the idea behind accessible web design is equal information, how 
can you provide the same guarantee that users without screen readers 
would consistently pronounce a word correctly? Shouldn't users of 
screen readers be able to alter pronunciation of certain words the 
same way I can add strange words to a "Spell Checker?" Then the 
initial understanding of accurate pronunciation could come, for 
everyone, from a phonetic text rendering in parenthesis the first 
time a word appears.



-- 
David R. Stong
Microcomputer Information Specialist (Graphic Designer),
Education Technology Services, a unit of
Teaching and Learning with Technology
Information Technology Services
The Pennsylvania State University

210  Rider Building II
227 W Beaver Avenue
State College, PA   16801-4819

Working for Universal Design: http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/accessibility

Received on Wednesday, 24 September 2003 14:46:15 UTC