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Re: [EXTERNAL]Forcing screen reader pronunciation of abbreviationimportant to a brand

for

From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Apr 15, 2018 11:41AM

USAA has a table of commonly used abbreviations and instructions on
how to add them to Jaws and NVDA dictionaries:
https://www.usaa.com/inet/pages/accessibility_at_usaa_main?akredirect=true
(you have to expand the desktop help section to see the tables).
This is a somewhat leftfield approach, but I find it interesting for
issues where screen reader pronounciation of words or abbreviations
cannot be explicitly forced by the author.
You can even put a sentence about adding common acronyms to
dictionaries on the homepage of your site, you can visually hide it.
Granted, I don't know if Voiceover offers custom pronounciation
dictionaries, I've never come across one.
Of course the real solution is for the author to code to spec and user
agents implementing that spec correctly.
I have had quite a few rants on here about how I think holding web
developers responsible for working around user agent shortcomings
implementing published standards is making accessibility difficult,
costly, and unreliable, but I'll let it go for now *grin*.



On 4/13/18, Tim Harshbarger < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> Personally, I would recommend not altering how the screen reader pronounces
> the acronym--unless you have specific evidence that demonstrates that it is
> causing problems for your users.
>
> Those of us who rely on screen readers are actually quite familiar with how
> screen readers pronounce or mispronounce words. In fact, the only time I
> think I know of where such a thing created more than just a minor nuisance
> was when the actual word and the mispronounced word both fit the context.
> For example, NE. In the context of directions having NVDA read NE as
> northeast when it could mean either the direction or an acronym for a
> company would be confusing. NVDA saying "northeast" for NE in a context
> where it would only refer to the company's acronym would not.
>
> Again I wouldn't spend time trying to do this unless you have specific
> information indicating that it is causing problems for screen reader users.
>
> Thanks,
> Tim
>
>