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Re: Keyboard accessibility of abbreviations

for

From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Apr 16, 2015 8:00AM

How about you offer the user the ability to tab to each abbreviation.
You can have a preference radiobutton or button labeled
"use keyboard accessible abbreviations"
You could hide that button at the beginning of code order and make it
only visible if user uses the tab key, see the skip link technique at:
http://terrillthompson.com/blog/161
If user says "yes" add tabindex="0" to all technical terms and
implement an accessible tooltip (make sure the tooltip text is tied to
the focusable element using aria-described).
Give the user the chance to turn this functionality off (you can use a
toggle button for the setting .. a button with a visible class and
aria-expanded attribute to match).
This way you offer the functionality when needed, but users can turn
it off if it interferes with their navigation of the site, if their
primary purpose is to get to a control, not read or understand an
article.



On 4/16/15, <EMAIL REMOVED> < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>> The first time an uncommon abbreviation is used in a page provide the
>> expansion:
>> example:
>> <abbr>W3C</abbr> (World Wide Web Consortium)
>> subsequent instances may include the expanded form in the title <abbr
>> title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</abbr>
>> This means it will be available to all by default, without any need for
>> complicated solutions.
>
> That is actually done wherever feasible, so f.i. not in headings. Most of
> the abbreviations used in headings are repeated with their expanded form in
> the text right after, though. I see two drawbacks in leaving everything the
> way it currently is:
>
> 1) It's impossible to outrule human error; someone can always forget to
> mention the expanded form once, maybe because it's common in their field but
> not for the occasional layman looking for information.
>
> 2) I am such a layman in medicine issues. Before I started working here I
> knew pretty much none of the abbreviations frequently featured on our
> website, and even now if I try to read a text anywhere on it, chances are I
> forgot what most of them mean by time they're mentioned a second time.
> Without the mouseover I'd frankly just skip most of them and not really get
> the text, then realize I understood nothing, scroll back up, and try once or
> twice more.
> I realize our js-implementation is only of limited use in that case too,
> because it's only supposed to show up the first time an abbreviation is
> used. But having no mechanism at all to offer the expanded form, on a site
> containing as many abbreviations as ours does, seems unsatisfactory as well.
> (Sadly "write simpler texts/use less abbreviations" isn't really an
> option.)
>
>> But does the abbr element work for keyboard only users?
>> How does it work visually?
>> If you put the abbreviation with a title, you would only see it with
>> either a screen reader that supports it, or if you hover over the
>> term with the mouse.
>
> Normally it only works on mouseover, yes, which is what we try to circumvent
> with a bit of scripting. It's not perfect - no js and it obviously doesn't
> work, and there's at least one bug in Chrome -, but overall it works like
> this: the first use of each abbreviation is included in the tab order
> (tabindex="0"), and when it has focus a small, pop-up like box appears above
> it and offers the expanded version.
>
> Thanks for your replies!
> Nasrin
> > > > >


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