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Re: WCAG 2 draft and abbreviations

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From: Alastair Campbell
Date: Aug 24, 2007 9:20AM

Philip Kiff wrote:
> "With respect to the choice of whether to use <acronym> or <abbr>, I
> think you are making far too much of the "semantic" difference
> between <abbr> and <acronym>"

I have to agree. Looking forward, what you 'semantically' want from an
interface point of view is an element that designates some text might
need more explanation, which then leads to (paraphrasing the other
points):

- Enabling user customisation.
- Automatically creating glossaries or other aids based purely on the
content.

In HTML5 terms (*not* trying to stir up Mr Foliot ;), I can't see a
"use-case" for having both.

I used to just use acronym, due to IE's lack of support. Now I'm leaning
towards just using abbr, as it has the more general meaning of the two,
and you can 'fix it' for IE:
http://juicystudio.com/article/fixing-ie-quotes.php

Kind regards,

-Alastair

--
Alastair Campbell | Director of User Experience

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