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Re: Best Practice - representing time/date info

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From: Murphy, Sean
Date: Mar 25, 2020 4:08PM

It depends on the screen reader. You are only using one screen reader as your example case. VoiceOver from memory does not have any specific settings for handling dates or time formats. Jaws does and I believe NVDA does. Also you need to think of country base if this is a web site. If it is a document, then using the USA format as you described is fine due to the origin of the document.

If you want to remove the dependency of date formats. Use Mar 25, 2020 and the screen reader will announce the date correctly. Time is still dependent on the screen reader. Most users I suspect will be used to how their screen reader announces dates and time.

I hope this helps.

Sean
-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of John E. Brandt
Sent: Thursday, 26 March 2020 6:35 AM
To: 'WebAIM Discussion List' < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: [WebAIM] Best Practice - representing time/date info

[External Email] This email was sent from outside the organisation – be cautious, particularly with links and attachments.

This is directed to screen reader users and those who know more about them than I:

In digital documents, what is the best way to represent dates and times so they make sense to people who use screen reader technology?

Example:

When I just tested with VoiceOver (VO) the following "3:00 PM ET" - VO stated "three zero zero p m e t"
When I tried "3-4 PM ET" = VO stated "three four p m e t"

How can we represent a specific time so it make sense?

Same issue with dates:

When I test with VO the following: "03/15/2020" - VO states "oh three slash one five slash two thousand twenty"
When I test with VO the following" "March 15, 2020" - VO states "March fifteenth two thousand twenty"

Is the second method preferred?

I've wondered about this for years and have never seen any guidance.

Stay safe, stay healthy

~j

John E. Brandt
jebswebs.com

<EMAIL REMOVED>
jebswebs.com