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Re: difference in sounce between <strong> and <em>

for

From: Hoffman, Allen
Date: Oct 7, 2011 12:48PM

I've never noticed a screen reader using any of these elements to change
pitch, speed, intonation, or other verbal attribute to convey
hierarchical level of emphasis. so, you could consider organization by
header level, use lists, or just italicize things and let readers figure
it out. If the emphasis is critical to the use of the content, e.g. for
the following paragraph, please define the emphasized phrases or words,
then you need to do something textually to ensure such important
information is clearly denoted--which may be something visual, e.g.
actually put in markers such as parenthesis, or some such.



-----Original Message-----
From: Angela French [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
Sent: Thursday, October 06, 2011 3:27 PM
To: 'WebAIM Discussion List'
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] difference in sounce between <strong> and <em>

<em> conveys visual designation? Really? I would have left that up to
<bold> which is presentational/visual.

I am asking about this because I'm working with a small team of
developers on a web app used by our employees in our college system, and
they are using <b> and <italic> within instructions - neither of which
is structural or, I assume, will convey the intended importance to a
screen reader user.



. The best way I can explain it is
>that <em> conveys a visual designation, distinction, or emphasis, but
does
>not convey importance. The HTML5 spec has some examples that may or may
>not help - http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/Overview.html#the-em-element
>
>Of note is that in HTML4 there are two levels of emphasis - either <em>
or
><strong>. In HTML5, you can nest <em> and/or <strong> to convey
multiple
>levels of emphasis or importance. While I think this is <strong>really,
><strong>REALLY</strong></strong> odd, you can see that there might be
>some applications for it. Perhaps if you nest enough of them, JAWS
might
>lose its voice from screaming at you?
>
>In all cases, <i> and <b> are not for emphasis or importance, but for
other (yet
>again convoluted by HTML5) things.
>
>But as has been mentioned, none of this really matters in practice.
>
>Jared
>