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RE: Acronyms and abbreviations

for

From: Paul Bohman
Date: Mar 28, 2002 3:12PM


We're getting into areas for which there is no official documentation
anywhere (that I'm aware of). I've heard different opinions on this
issue. My opinion is this: if you provide the expansion of the acronym
in the context of the main text, there is no need to supply an <acronym>
tag.

If you put the acronym tag in contexts such as these, some screen
readers will read the expanded version rather than the acronym, so users
will hear:

"Federal Bureau of Investigation (Federal Bureau of Investigation)"

In this context, the purpose of the acronym (to provide a shortened
version) is defeated.

Paul Bohman
Technology Coordinator
WebAIM (Web Accessibility in Mind)
www.webaim.org
Center for Persons with Disabilities
www.cpd.usu.edu
Utah State University
www.usu.edu




-----Original Message-----
From: jebs webs [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]

If you have a reference on a page that provides the description and then
the
abbreviation/acronym in brackets as part of the text of the page, does
one
have to add the <ABBR> tags?

Example:

"The suspect was taken into custody by agents of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI)..."


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