Re: Speak-Punctuation

Benjamin Schak <schak@schak.com> wrote on 12/8/99 10:21 am:

>The main problem seems to 
>me to be that the nuances of 
>written English
>punctuation (and 
>punctuation of other human 
>languages) are too complex 
>to
>be handled by a predefined 
>set of CSS properties. It 
>would be better to
>let page authors tell 
>speech-based browsers 
>exactly how to render 
>complex text. 
... examples deleted ...

Because it is a complex problem, the listener should decide what style of pronounciation is used.

The cascade order for CSS2  allows the user's style sheet to override the designer's style sheet.  This is important for universal accessibility.

This is similar. I have spoken to a Scotsman that I couldn't understand. We knew that we were both speaking English, but he could not communicate with me. I would prefer to hear his Web pages with an accent that I can understand.

People who are illiterate in a secondary language may find it easier to understand a reading in the accent of thier primary language.

Even things like 'three thousand, two hundred' vs 'thirty two hundred' vary between cultures, don't they?

I think that pronounciation should be controled by the listener, not the writer.

Jonathan O'Donnell
mailto:jonathan@rmit.edu.au
http://purl.nla.gov.au/net/jonathan

Jonathan O'Donnell
Director of Information Technology
Art, Design and Communication
RMIT City campus 6.3.12

Telephone: +61 3 992 52903
ICQ: 4613558
mailto:doit@art.rmit.edu.au
http://purl.nla.gov.au/net/jonathan

Received on Sunday, 15 August 1999 19:18:55 UTC