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Re: en-dash, dash and minus

for

From: Mallory
Date: Jul 30, 2018 1:34AM

I recently needed to know about what mathy stuff we could rely on default settings to read out:
http://www.stommepoes.nl/work/symboltest.html

Not having access to iThings means I relied on a (now getting quite old) Deque page for VoiceOver.

cheers,

On Fri, Jul 27, 2018, at 5:40 PM, <EMAIL REMOVED> wrote:
> A minus is a minus.
> A dash is ... well, which dash are you referring to? An em-dash or an
> en-dash? They are both different in terms of grammar usage and have
> different meanings. There's nothing in grammar or typography called a
> dash.
>
> What you used in your email was a hyphen, not a dash. The hyphen is used
> to connect two words (as in a compound word) or two fragmennts of a word
> (when hyphenated at the end of a line). It's not a dash, even if people
> call it that. It's a hyphen and that's how it was programmed in our
> earliest computer technologies.
>
> In Microsoft Office, it's easy to insert an em-dash, en-dash, or minus
> as long as you know the Unicode codepoint for each:
>
> Type the 4-character codepoint, followed by Alt plus X keys, and it
> converts the codepoint to the correct Unicode character. Open up MS Word
> and try this:
>
> Em-dash is 2014, used between sentence phrases for a more dramatic shift
> if focus. Should create a long pause with screen readers.
>
> En-dash is 2013, used in a series, such as 9 to 5, January through December.
>
> Minus is 2212.
>
> If you're doing math and science, then use the correct symbol, the minus
> sign, if you want students to learn and pass their exams.
>
> --Bevi
> — — —
> Bevi Chagnon, founder/CEO | <EMAIL REMOVED>
> — — —
> PubCom: Technologists for Accessible Design + Publishing
> consulting ' training ' development ' design ' sec. 508 services
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>
> -----Original Message-----
> > On Jul 27, 2018, at 8:18 AM, Isabel Holdsworth < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> >
> > Hi all,
> >
> > Yet another niggly accessibility issue I could do with your thoughts on.
> >
> > I'm working on some eAssessment software that allows teachers to
> > upload maths questions and their pupils to answer them online.
> >
> > Some of the teachers are using the en-dash (–) character instead of
> > the minus (−) sign, because it's wider and easier to see. But we feel
> > that en-dash doesn't convey the subtraction operation to screenreader
> > users.
> >
> > Since there's no easy way to enter a minus sign using the keyboard,
> > we're trying to come up with a compromise that makes the content more
> > accessible.
> >
> > I think the dash (-) character is a good alternative, and it's widely
> > available and IMO widely understood to denote subtraction.
> >
> > What do you guys think?
> >
> > We really want to offer the best experience we can to kids sitting
> > tests using our software, so I'd appreciate your thoughts.
> >
> > Thanks as always, Lynn
>
> > > >