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Re: difference in sounce between <strong> and <em>

for

From: Jukka K. Korpela
Date: Oct 6, 2011 12:09PM

6.10.2011 20:49, Jared Smith wrote:

> On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 11:33 AM, Angela French< <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>> Can you please tell me what is the difference between how a screen reader reads<strong> versus<em>?
>
> I've never seen a difference in handling between <strong> and <em>. I
> suppose a screen reader should read <em> louder or with more
> inflection than <strong>. But, most screen readers don't do anything
> different with this markup anyway.

There's the additional point that we cannot really expect software to be
changed much in this respect, because the HTML5 drafts redefine the
semantics of <em> and <strong>. They are no more supposed to indicate
different levels of emphasis but "emphasis" vs. "importance" It's a
confusing issue, in my mind, and in most people's minds, and it's
difficult to say how they _should_ be rendered in non-visual presentation.

>> Does it make a difference which is used if the purpose is to convey emphasis?
>
> Yes it does, at least if you want to be semantically correct and
> follow the HTML spec. It currently doesn't make any difference as far
> as accessibility goes.

There's surely a point in following the current HTML specifications as
regards to semantics of elements. But it's not a particularly strong
point, as most stakeholders (like authors of browsers and assistive
software, and web authors, and search engines) don't take the semantics
very seriously. And the semantics will be changed if HTML5 gets approved.

I think the most important thing is to be consistent. If you use markup
consistently, it is easier to tune the rendering with style sheets. As
long as you know what you are doing - e.g., use <em> (or <i>) for words
emphasized in sentence context and <strong> (or <b>) for words that
should be highlighted - you need not worry too much about phrase-level
markup.

--
Yucca, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/