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Re: abbreviations

for

From: John Foliot
Date: May 27, 2010 11:21PM

Jukka K. Korpela wrote:
>
> On the other hand, using <abbr> or <acronym> markup would help
> remarkably
> little if at all in reducing confusion. To begin with, the vast
> majority of
> people use browsing software that either ignores such markup completely
> or
> uses it in misleading ways, like underlining the element's content in a
> manner that suggests that it is some kind of a link, even though it
> isn't.

Hi Jukka,

How/what would you propose be done instead? If we can agree that a
mechanism that aids in disambiguation is a good thing - yet currently
<abbr> is failing at that - is there a better way? Should user agents do
more, or should we look to another mechanism instead? With on-going work
within HTML5, and an accessibility Task Force at the W3C (that involves
browser makers) currently very active, could a better solution be put
forward? Now is the time to specifically define what we need and what we
should have.

Does anyone on this list have any ideas?

JF