Re: HTML5 and ruby

On 2012/01/19 16:05, Leif Halvard Silli wrote:
> "Martin J. Dürst", Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:50:52 +0900:

>> I don't remember the Ruby Annotation spec to say anything about
>> what's a word and what not.
>
> The Ruby Annotation spec does not include<rp>  for complex ruby,
> because - it says - it is unclear how to render it in fallback mode. In
> fallback mode, the parentheses would become visible, and parentheses
> are word/compound splitters. And HTML5, as is, allows<rp>  for its
> version of complex ruby. So you could end up with this:
>
> <ruby>
>    <rb>W</rb><rp>[</rp><rt>World</rt><rp>]</rp>
>    <rb>W</rb><rp>[</rp><rt>Wide</rt><rp>]</rp>
>    <rb>W</rb><rp>[</rp><rt>Web</rt><rp>]</rp>
> </ruby>
>
> A screen reader would read the above as: W - World, W - Wide, W - Web.

Why? A really dumb one might read the parentheses, too. A more 
intelligent might read only WWW or only World Wide Web, with an acoustic 
indication that there's something else that can be listened too.

> So it seems to me that Ruby Annotation has some 'built-in' thoughts
> about what's a word and what not.

At least for Japanese screen readers, it would be very important that 
they read the ruby, not the base text. There are definitely exceptions, 
but in roughly 90% or more of the cases, ruby indicate pronunciation. 
Even the above example can be seen this way.

I guess that indicating which parts need to be spoken could be indicated 
quite easily by an audio stylesheet (and if necessary classes to 
distinguish pronunciation guides from e.g. additional text to make a 
point or jokes). The screen reader could then pick up from there.

I'm not sure to what extent that screen readers do this currently, 
though. I had a Japanese IBM Home Page Reader working for an older 
machine, but it doesn't work any more on the current machine, and I 
didn't get aroud yet to install a new one.

Regards,    Martin.

Received on Thursday, 19 January 2012 09:01:21 UTC