WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

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Re: Punctuation in JAWS

for

From: Michael.Moore@dars.state.tx.us
Date: Jun 3, 2010 11:06AM

The amount of punctuation spoken by JFW and other screen readers is completely under the control of the user. This can range from announcing all punctuation, which is useful when editing a document, to announcing no punctuation at all, which I often prefer when just reading a document. This is all up to the individual users discretion. No changes in punctuation should be made to accommodate a screen reader. If you don't want to hear the parens just setting the punctuation verbosity to "some" should do the trick. To get to the verbosity settings use JAWS Key+v.

Mike Moore


-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Garcia, Bobby
Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2010 8:42 AM
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: [WebAIM] Punctuation in JAWS

Hey, gang! I'm developing some web-based training courses that are being
tested for accessibility using JAWS. What I noticed is that JAWS reads
punctuation and I'm curious to get some different views on this.



Take, for example, the following statement: I never apologize (I'm
sorry, that's just the way I am).



Jaws will read: I never apologize open parens I'm sorry...



My question is, does this take away/add to the user's experience? Is it
a hindrance to hear that, is it superfluous, or do any users benefit
from visualizing the parens? I mean, I know I can always tailor my
content to avoid using excessive punctuation but I'd still like to know
how different people feel about this. And not necessarily JAWS only, but
any other screen readers, as well.



Thanks!



Bobby Garcia