Selecting Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools

The heading of the first sub-section on the page reads

   What Evaluation Tools Can Do and Can Not Do

When I was in first grade, we were taught that in order to 
convey inability to do something one should write “cannot”
as a single word.  This helps avoid the misreading that takes
“X can not do Y” as meaning “X has the capability to refrain
from Y” (which implicitly suggests that if X chose, X could
in fact do Y).

In the current document, I take the meaning of both occurrences
of “can not” to be “is not able to” or “is not in a position to”.  So
I suggest changing “can not” to “cannot” in all three places where
it appears in the document (two occurrences of the section heading
and one in the prose).

Of course, I realize that other people’s first grade teachers may
have taught them different rules about “can” and “not”.   I 
would cite another authority more generally recognized, but
the University of Chicago Manual of Style does not address the
question and I am away from my desk so I cannot now conveniently
consult other resources that carry any weight.  For what it is 
worth, a couple of not quite random bloggers and commenters
on Stack Exchange agree with me ([2], [3]), but that is currently
the best I can do by way of marshalling support for this
suggestion.

best regards,

Michael Sperberg-McQueen


[1] https://www.w3.org/WAI/test-evaluate/tools/selecting/
[2] https://www.grammarly.com/blog/cannot-or-can-not/
[3] https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/132600/can-not-vs-cannot


********************************************
C. M. Sperberg-McQueen
Black Mesa Technologies LLC
cmsmcq@blackmesatech.com
http://www.blackmesatech.com
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Received on Wednesday, 25 March 2020 15:25:10 UTC