How to specify pronunciation of ABBR?

Quoting from the XHTML 2.0 spec
http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/WD-xhtml2-20030506/mod-inline-text.html#edef_inline-text_abbr

Note that abbreviations often have idiosyncratic pronunciations. For
example, while "IRS" and "BBC" are typically pronounced letter by letter,
"NATO" and "UNESCO" are pronounced phonetically. Still other abbreviated
forms (e.g., "URI" and "SQL") are spelled out by some people and pronounced
as words by other people. When necessary, authors should use style sheets
to specify the pronunciation of an abbreviated form.

Does anyone have a example of how to specify the pronunciation with CSS?

I know how to specify ACSS [see note 1] for it to speak it softly or
loudly, whether to spell it out with "speak" property set to "spell-out",
or add some sounds, etc. but not how to pronounce it.  Forget for a moment
the problem of screen readers and text-to-speech synthesizer (TTS)
supporting it, I'm really focused on how an author should specify it so
that the TTS speaks it as the author desires it to be pronounced.

For example, how would I specify the way to pronounce the string "VoiceXML"
as "Voice X M L" and still display it without a space between the word
voice and XML?  This might work:

ABBR { speak: spell-out }
...some in-line text then
Voice<abbr title="Extensible Markup Language">XML</abr> followed
by more in-line text...

Ok.  But how would I specify the correct pronunciation for non
abbreviations and title attributes such as English words red verses read vs
reed?

ABBR { speak: spell-out }
...some in-line text then
<abbr title="Read the Book">RTB</abr> Club followed
by more in-line text...

Should it be red the book or reed the book, only the author might know.
Isn't that part of the pronunciation lexicon markup [see note 2] being
worked on by the voice browser working group?


Note 1 Aural Style Sheets
http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-CSS2-19980512/aural.html
Note 1 Lexicon Markup Requirements http://www.w3.org/TR/lexicon-reqs/

Regards,
Phill Jenkins,  IBM Accessibility Services
http://www.ibm.com/able

Received on Friday, 9 January 2004 18:15:37 UTC