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Re: [EXTERNAL] Spell out "Q&A"

for

From: Tim Harshbarger
Date: Apr 6, 2018 5:45AM

In case part of the concern was how screen readers read the initialism...

As a screen reader user, I can tell you that we tend to become accustomed to how the screen reader reads text. In fact, I know I become so accustomed to it that I pronounce some things the way the screen reader does and I'm not aware of it until someone asks me about it. For example, SEO. Instead of saying "S E O", I tend to say it like "say-o" which is how the screen reader pronounces it.

Jared provides an excellent rule of thumb... If your general audience would have problem with the initialism then those using screen readers will likely have problems with it. If your general audience wouldn't have problems with it, then people using screen readers are likely use to how the screen reader pronounces that term.

I think the only time it really becomes problematic is with punctuation marks. For example, if you have a message that says something like "Passwords cannot include %, ?, or /" someone using a screen reader might miss those punctuation marks depending on how they have their screen reader setup. But I think that can be easily dealt with in most cases.

Thanks!
Tim

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Jared Smith
Sent: Thursday, April 5, 2018 5:50 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [WebAIM] Spell out "Q&A"

> Can anyone let me know (or confirm my instinct) if "Q&A" should be spelled out, Questions & Answers, in an H1 tag?

This isn't (or shouldn't be) an accessibility-specific question.
You'll want to consider the impact of this initialism for everyone. If
you think Q&A makes sense for your audience, then use it. If not,
spell it out. Just consider that the overhead of scanning and reading
"Questions & Answers" vs. "Q&A" or "Frequently Asked Questions" vs.
"FAQ" is pretty notable, and may be higher than correlating the
initialisms to their meaning.

The danger of considering content expansions only for users with
disabilities (perhaps due to how a screen reader might read these -
"FAQ", for example, can raise eyebrows when read quickly as a word by
a screen reader) is that this approach can quickly sway far the other
direction to overly verbose explanations that can increase overhead
and reading time for everyone.

Thanks,

Jared