Re: Contractions: good or not from the accessibility perspective?

Hi, John!

Thank you so much for your response.

I’m a fool for not having defined my audience in my first e-mail about this subject; sorry about that. My question regarding use of contractions is both for written documentation—for example, user guides, reference guides, whitepapers—and end-user web interface microcopy.

We often adhere to Microsoft guidelines, but as the Microsoft Writing Style Guide is inconsistent at times, I thought it’d be good to listen to the WAI expert crowd.

We want to set a friendly tone with our users while keeping things fairly neutral. We want a user to feel calm and secure, while knowing they can rely on our products to tell them the truth and give them advice. I work for a company that create fairly complex stuff, but we want to make it all feel fairly simple to use.

Another thing: even though a lot of search engines can handle contractions and contain ‘fuzzy logic’, not using contractions may help in defining good search results. That’s a side note. There’s also the topic of translations, and I think contractions create problems where machine-created translations are concerned…

I’m really just interested in whether using contractions is a good thing from an accessibility standpoint. I get and agree on what you’re saying in terms of consistency.

Cheers,
Nik



From: John Foliot <john@foliot.ca>
Date: Friday, 28 May 2021 at 14:20
To: Niklas Pivic <niklas.pivic@snowsoftware.com>
Cc: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Subject: Re: Contractions: good or not from the accessibility perspective?
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Hi Niklas,

> Is it OK to use contractions in documentation and still write inclusively with accessibility in mind?

I don't think there is a black or white answer there; like so much about accessibility, the actual answer is closer to "it depends".

Mostly, I think it depends on the content, context, and the target audience(s). In formal 'documentation' (user guides? instructional materials?) I'd likely avoid contractions as being too 'informal'. But in marketing materials (think ad copy) not only might it be more appropriate, it may actually be critical in meeting other business requirements (I recall a Coca Cola marketing campaign that claimed "It's the Real Thing").

It may also depend on the topic being written about - and how formal or informal that topic might be, so mostly it would have to be a judgement call. Internal policies and style guides may provide a protocol for individual entities, but a blanket statement would never cover all use-cases.

I think too that it's important to acknowledge the constraints that Microsoft article highlights, specifically:


·         Don't mix contractions and their spelled-out equivalents in UI text. For example, don’t use can’t and cannot in the same UI.

·         Never form a contraction from a noun and a verb, such as Microsoft’s developing a lot of new cloud services.

·         Avoid ambiguous or awkward contractions, such as there’d, it’ll, and they’d.
Remembering those 3 "Don'ts" (ha! another contraction) will likely address the majority of disability concerns you mentioned (for many, but never for all). In the end, it will be a judgement call, and I will suggest that a uniform application of any internal decision will be equally important in meeting the Plain Language/Readability goals you allude to. Be consistent!

HTH

JF

On Fri, May 28, 2021 at 5:06 AM Niklas Pivic <niklas.pivic@snowsoftware.com<mailto:niklas.pivic@snowsoftware.com>> wrote:
Hi!

I am new to the WAI list, so I apologise in advance if I happen to do something wrong.

I have searched the web for an answer but can’t find one, so here goes:

Is it OK to use contractions in documentation and still write inclusively with accessibility in mind?

Microsoft’s Writing Style Guide says that using contractions is good<https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.microsoft.com%2Fen-gb%2Fstyle-guide%2Fword-choice%2Fuse-contractions&data=04%7C01%7Cniklas.pivic%40snowsoftware.com%7Ccfca67a389d24c89f15a08d921d2ec36%7Cd76c28a10b62484998fd8cf2516370ce%7C0%7C0%7C637578012207725398%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000&sdata=HNDql2Y3W5ChNDGbAsyBuzsk7cTvuI8WAuNVWAswJac%3D&reserved=0>, as it contributes to creating ‘a friendly, informal tone.’

On the other hand, I’ve seen people note that contractions are bad from the accessibility standpoint, mainly where people with certain visual impairments are concerned along with people who have certain disabilities, for example dyslexia.

I would appreciate your thoughts on this dearly.

Thank you very much in advance.

Best regards,

Niklas Pivic
Technical Writer
+46 708575069
niklas.pivic@snowsoftware.com<mailto:niklas.pivic@snowsoftware.com>
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John Foliot | Senior Industry Specialist, Digital Accessibility
"I made this so long because I did not have time to make it shorter." - Pascal "links go places, buttons do things"