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Re: abbreviations

for

From: Susan Grossman
Date: May 26, 2010 10:18AM

On Wed, May 26, 2010 at 8:02 AM, Dan Conley < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> 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.
>
>


I use the acronym tag and add a little style so that it "shows" for sighted
users when moused or tabbed who want to know what it is also. Multi-purpose
and users have commented they like this. Guess it would also depend on your
audience and the usage.

Susan R. Grossman