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Pronounced as initials (was RE: WCAG 2 draft and abbreviations)

for

From: John Foliot - Stanford Online Accessibility Program
Date: Jun 5, 2007 12:40PM

Keith Parks wrote:
>
> For instance, a reader ought to be able to tell, through experience
> and context, that the "US" in US Olympic Team is an abbreviation, to
> be pronounced "you ess". But how does the speech synthesizer know
> this? Do they have that level of logic and interpretation built into
> them?
>
> It would seem like a structural tag saying that "These letters are
> not an ordinary word, but are to be pronounced as initials" would be
> helpful, outside of any explanation of what they stand for, which I
> agree ought to be part of regular flow of text, as is typical when
> following proper writing style.


Oh, but that aural style sheets were taken seriously:

<span style="speak:spell-out;">US</span>

[http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/aural.html#speaking-props]

It exists already Keith...

JF
---
John Foliot
Academic Technology Consultant
Stanford Online Accessibility Program
http://soap.stanford.edu
Stanford University
560 Escondido Mall
Meyer Library 181
Stanford, CA 94305-3093
Tel: 650-862-4603