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Re: Hyphenation best practices

for

From: ckrugman
Date: Jan 5, 2010 11:57AM

Screen readers can be set to read punctuation as needed,. There is no need
to use any different punctuation then you would in any regular form of
grammar. As I do frequent editing of documents I want the screen reader to
read all punctuation that exists and I want documents created with correct
grammar and punctuation. Modifying grammatical content and punctuation is
not required to comply and should not be required to comply with web
accessibility for screen readers.
Chuck Krugman, M.S.W., Paralegal
1237 P Street
Fresno ca 93721
559-266-9237
----- Original Message -----
From: "Langum, Michael J" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
To: "'WebAIM Discussion List'" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Sent: Tuesday, January 05, 2010 6:04 AM
Subject: [WebAIM] Hyphenation best practices


> I'm interested in some feed back (especially from screen reader users) on
> best practices for hyphenation. Hyphens are sometimes used without
> surrounding spaces to:
>
> 1. combine words into new words: e.g. "blue-collar," "senior-level,"
> etc..
> 2. connect elements in a series: e.g. "Some places are vulnerable to
> earthquakes (San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA)"
> 3. as a form of punctuation (as double hyphens ["--"]) to connect
> different parts of a sentence (as with a comma): e.g. "He entered the
> room -- unaware of the danger."
>
> I'm thinking that screen readers would not be able correctly parse these
> cases, i.e. combining the words in case 1 above, and providing a pause in
> the case 2 and 3.
>
> Is this true?
> Is it a serious problem? Or are screen reader users used to the behavior
> and able to mentally compensate?
> Are there some best practices to suggest to our authors on when to uses
> hyphens without spaces?
>
> -- Mike
>
>