Re: Opinions on accessible time formatting

So given the fact that I was really curious, but only tested it briefly, and only with VoiceOver on my Mac (I was too lazy to pull the HTML up on my Windows station where I have also JAWS and NVDA).

I created a small HTML file with 4 sentences:

this is some text and it is 10:00 am in the morning  -  VoiceOver read am as a word, pronouncing it ăm

this is some text and it is 11:00 a.m. in the morning  -  VoiceOver read a.m. as a m separating the a and m sounds

this is some text and it is 9:00 AM in the morning  -  VoiceOver read AM as A M separating the A and M sounds

this is some text and it is 8:00 A.M. in the morning  -  VoiceOver read A.M. as A M separating the A and M sounds

Those were my quick test result from all 4 time formats, using VoiceOver.

Hope this helps.


Geri Druckman

Web Development Specialist - Accessibility

Department of Digital Experience

MD Anderson Cancer Center

T 713-792-6293 | F 713-745-8134


From: Howard Leicester <howard_leicester@btconnect.com<mailto:howard_leicester@btconnect.com>>
Reply-To: "howard_leicester@btconnect.com<mailto:howard_leicester@btconnect.com>" <howard_leicester@btconnect.com<mailto:howard_leicester@btconnect.com>>
Date: Friday, November 7, 2014 at 2:17 PM
To: 'Andy Keyworth' <akeyworth@tbase.com<mailto:akeyworth@tbase.com>>, 'WAI Interest Group' <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org<mailto:w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>>
Subject: RE: Opinions on accessible time formatting
Resent-From: <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org<mailto:w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>>
Resent-Date: Friday, November 7, 2014 at 2:18 PM

Thanks, All, for useful discussion,

I’m just thinking that presentation of dates and phone numbers, in addition to times, may be in the same bracket?

Perhaps we find a ‘standard’ for all, and rely on Assistive Technologies to present in the most appropriate formate?

VV best,
Howard
(Kent, England)


________________________________
From: Andy Keyworth [mailto:akeyworth@tbase.com]
Sent: 07 November 2014 16:49
To: 'WAI Interest Group'
Subject: RE: Opinions on accessible time formatting

Thank you John,

That’s a very comprehensive answer, and probably the best way to go.

Cheers,

Andy Keyworth
Senior Web Accessibility Specialist
T-Base Communications
Phone: 613-236-0866 | Toll free: 1-800-563-0668 x 1256
www.tbase.com<http://www.tbase.com/>| Ogdensburg, NY | Ottawa, ON
ALL TOUCH POINTS. ALL ACCESS METHODS. ALL FORMATS.TM

This email may contain information that is privileged and confidential. If you have received this communication in error, please delete this email message immediately.

From: John Foliot [mailto:john@foliot.ca]
Sent: November-07-14 11:38 AM
To: 'Olaf Drümmer'; 'WAI Interest Group'
Subject: RE: Opinions on accessible time formatting

I'm actually with John on this one…

In part this is affected by some user-settings, but as I recall by defaults most screen readers will normally read upper-case letters aloud, so 9:00 AM would be read aloud as "nine aye em", whilst lower case 'might' be read as "nine am" (as in "I am concerned about this")

Based upon that, my Best Practices would be to *always* note AM and PM in uppercase - and if you read through even just this response thread, you'll note that email clients are already using upper-case by default (presumption based upon observations).

However, I wondered if the Chicago Style guide (or others) had anything to say here, and 5 minutes with Google confirms the following:

·         AP Style Guide: uses lower-case with periods (Example 1:00 a.m. or 3:00 p.m.)

·         Chicago Manual of Style: uses lower-case with periods

·         The New York Times Manual: uses lower-case with periods

·         Oxford Style Guide: uses lower-case, no periods (I personally would not recommend this, due to the 'am' issue)

FWIW.

JF


From: Olaf Drümmer [mailto:olaflist@callassoftware.com]
Sent: Friday, November 7, 2014 7:41 AM
To: WAI Interest Group
Cc: Olaf Drümmer
Subject: Re: Opinions on accessible time formatting

Better yet, express time using 24 hours…. AM and PM should never have been invented…. ;-)

Olaf

On 7 Nov 2014, at 16:23, John Topp <jtopp@criticalmass.com<mailto:jtopp@criticalmass.com>> wrote:

Wouldn’t the periods be needed so that the screen reader doesn’t pronounce them as words?  Or better yet, use capitals? AM PM

On Nov 7, 2014, at 9:59 AM, Andy Keyworth <akeyworth@tbase.com<mailto:akeyworth@tbase.com>> wrote:

04.11.2014, 16:12, "Andy Keyworth" <akeyworth@tbase.com<mailto:akeyworth@tbase.com>>:
Hi,

I'm hoping I can get some advice on how expressions of time can be
accessibly formatted on web pages.

For example, is 11:00 a.m. or 2:00 p.m. considered (generally)
acceptable, or would 11:00 am or 2:00 pm (without periods between
letters) be preferable? Is another format better?

As far as I know, these are pretty much equal in reality.



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