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

for

From: Jonathan Cohn
Date: Apr 15, 2018 12:46PM

For Macintosh VoiceOver:
1. Open VoiceOver Utility with Control-option-F8
2. Switch to Speech panel command-three
3. Switch to pronunciation tab.

There you find a table with four columns:
Original, Prononciation, Case Sensitive, Application.

I understand that IOS 11 also has a voiceover pronunciation dictionary but I have never reviewed that.

Best wishes,

Jonathan Cohn



> On Apr 15, 2018, at 1:41 PM, Birkir R. Gunnarsson < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>
> 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
>>
>>