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Re: Area Codes

for

From: chagnon@pubcom.com
Date: Mar 15, 2019 12:59PM

Concurring with Birkir.

I think the worst method of all for accessibility with all technologies is the period. It might sometimes be voiced as "point," but frequently it's ignored and the phone number (202) 123-0987 is announced as 2,021,230,987. Comprehension is severely compromised, especially when zeros are in the phone number.

As a former magazine art director/graphic designer, don't let your designers get too artsy-fartsy with phone numbers. The key objective is to communicate information, not to win design awards.

—Bevi Chagnon

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-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Sent: Friday, March 15, 2019 2:29 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Area Codes

Yes, probably overthinking it. ;)
Use the most standard way you display phone numbers in general, that is the one screen reader users are most used to (if screen readers announce them oddly the users are used to that).
My recommendation is (555) 555-2322
or, to go all 80s, (555) 6875309 (the song gets stuck in your head).
If you are displaying an input for a phone number I ecomend having a forgiving input logic that allows common types, straight numbers or () etc. Apply auto formatting to the input after the user moves focus away.
Cheers
-Birkir


On 3/15/19, TRAUTWEIN_PAUL < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> Hey –
>
> Every 6 months or so, we have a debate in our office about the best
> way to display area codes on our website.
>
> I've done some comparison testing using Voiceover and NVDA. NVDA adds
> appropriate pauses but VO doesn't.
>
> xxx-xxx-xxxx (no pauses in the number in VO)
> (xxx) xxx-xxxx (very slight pause after the parenthesis) xxx.xxx.xxxx
> (the periods are read as "point")
>
> Is there a preferred way to display phone numbers?
> Is there any reason to choose one over another?
> Are we thinking about this WAY too much?
>
> Any thoughts would be appreciated.
> Paul
>
> Paul Trautwein | Web Coordinator
> Santa Monica College | Marketing Department
> 1900 Pico Blvd. Santa Monica CA 90405
> 310.434.4204 | www.smc.edu
>
> > > archives at http://webaim.org/discussion/archives
> >


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