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Re: Best Practice - representing time/date info

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From: wolfgang.berndorfer@zweiterblick.at
Date: Mar 26, 2020 4:11AM

It also depends on the general settings for how SR or speech should announce numbers.

If I told my SR to announce each number it will have effect on telephone numbers, dates and time. Don't know of any configuration especially for date and time. So AT developers have to be addressed.

But the question for best practice still is relevant for understanding and UX. The MM-DD-YYYY model is confusing for me as German speaking, where DD-MM-YYYY is common. So I'd prefer *March 25, 2020* to inform me about the month. 03/25/2020 may still be understandable (but don't make me think!). 08/09/2020 already could easily be misinterpreted by somebody, who is used to understand DD-MM-YYYY.

Wolfgang

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Von: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > Im Auftrag von Murphy, Sean
Gesendet: Mittwoch, 25. März 2020 23:09
An: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Betreff: Re: [WebAIM] Best Practice - representing time/date info

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