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From: Dan Conley
Date: May 26, 2010 10:00AM


Apologies if this has been discussed ad nauseam already.

I know Jared has said in the past that WebAIM has shifted away from
abbreviating from abbreviating common terms like HTML. I've considered
this -- I expand things like PDF and etc, which probably do more harm
than good -- but haven't actually changed anything yet, as our grant is
nearly up and I plan on doing a site revamp if/when we're refunded.

I'm being forced to confront the issue now, though, as I'm formatting a
long article on HIV/AIDS, and I think having the text 'Human
Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome' repeated at
least once a paragraph would get wordy (and confusing) very quickly.

So: is this something I should just let slide without a tag? Should I
give them plain <abbr> tags? I don't know how screen readers would
approach it, or if people are used to hearing 'hiv' pronounced and can
auto-correct it in their head.

--
Dan Conley
Information Specialist
Center for International Rehabilitation Research Information and
Exchange (CIRRIE)
University at Buffalo, Health Sciences Library B6
Phone: (716) 829-5728
<EMAIL REMOVED>
http://cirrie.buffalo.edu