Acronyms and Abbreviations?

In last weeks HTML working group meeting, I was asked about the
WAI's interest in the possibility of HTML elements for marking up
abbreviations and acronyms. I seem to remember that we briefly
discussed this at the WAI meeting recently in Sophia, but can't
find the details in the minutes other than: 

   "Acronym element was accepted by HTML group so that proper
    pronounciation can be done".

The ACRONYM element would be used together with the TITLE attribute
to specify the expanded name. TITLE has been added to most HTML
elements for the next version of HTML. On graphical browsers
the idea is that it would be used for tool tips also known as
baloon help which pop-up as the mouse pointer is held over
the associated element. This is a technique commonly used for
user interfaces.

The HTML working group was unable to reach a concensus on the
need for a specific element for abbreviations. Thomas Reardon
(Microsoft) argued that there was no need since user agents would
have access to dictionaries covering nearly all abbreviations.
These dictionaries could in principle be used to identify the
abbreviations without the need for explicit markup.

What do members of this group think?

Regards,

Dave Raggett <dsr@w3.org>

tel +44 122 578 252 url http://www.w3.org/People/Raggett
World Wide Web Consortium (on assignment from HP Labs)

Received on Monday, 9 June 1997 05:37:09 UTC