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Re: JWAS and special characters pronunciation

for

From: Bourne, Sarah (ITD)
Date: Jan 2, 2014 8:40AM

Imagine I were trying to search for "p110á" (with or without AT.) Any workaround for screenreaders that breaks that string into separate "words" could break its findability by search. For instance, inserting even a very, teeny, tiny space would make it "p110" and "á" to a search engine. I would lean towards including instructions for screen reader users, such as recommendations for configuring the dictionary and suggesting reading non-common words or numbers character-by-character when accuracy is essential.

It might stretch the definition of "abbreviation," but perhaps you could use ABBR, and have the TITLE spell out the correct pronunciation? For instance, <abbr title="p 100 alpha"> p110á </abbr>

(I have no idea how search engines handle multiple Unicode names and other encodings for characters that appear to be the same. That makes my head to hurt to think of!)

sb
Sarah E. Bourne
Director of Assistive Technology &
Mass.Gov Chief Technology Strategist
Information Technology Division
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
1 Ashburton Pl. rm 1601 Boston MA 02108
617-626-4502
<EMAIL REMOVED>
http://www.mass.gov/itd