RE: "phonemes" property in the CSS3 Speech module

What do you think about using ruby element instead?

It's a little more lengthy, but it solves the problem to add new attribute, and the usage is semantically correct (not a hack).

rb { speakability: none; }
rt { display: none; speakability: normal; }

<p>My doctor said to eat a
  <ruby><rb>tomato</rb><rt>toe-MAH-toe</rt></ruby>
  every day.</p> 

Well, two issues need to be solved though:
* <rb> is currently proposed to remove from HTML5
* speakability and display problem in the separate discussions


Regards,
Koji

-----Original Message-----
From: www-style-request@w3.org [mailto:www-style-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Tab Atkins Jr.
Sent: Friday, February 04, 2011 9:28 AM
To: Stephen Zilles
Cc: www-style@w3.org list
Subject: Re: "phonemes" property in the CSS3 Speech module

Just to distill down the essential problem you have, and provide a tl;dr version:

Authors may start with pages like this:

<style>
.a1678 { /* stupid class names are unfortunately common */
  phonemes "toe-MAH-toe";
  font-weight: bold;
}
</style>
<p>My doctor said to eat a <span class=a1678>tomato</span> every day.</p>

And then, at some point in the future, it gets changed to:

<p>My doctor said to take my <span class=a1678>vitamins</span> every day.</p>

(With the <span> being cargo-culted in because of the visual styling.)

Now, screen readers will say "My doctor said to take my toe-MAH-toe every day.", to nonsensical results.

The problem here is the indirection for what is really a property of the content.  You instead propose to do something like:

<p>My doctor said to eat a <span
pronounceas="toe-MAH-toe">tomato</span> every day.</p>

Then, if the content changes in the future, it's much more obvious that this is wrong:

<p>My doctors said to take my <span
pronounceas="toe-MAH-toe">vitamins</span> every day.</p>

~TJ