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Re: Blank paragraphs

for

From: chagnon@pubcom.com
Date: Nov 21, 2022 2:37PM


Gah!
Blank paragraphs!
As someone who works not only in accessibility but across all digital media
for all purposes, they royally f-up everything.
Different T T S have different audible clues to signal the end of a
paragraph. They might be slight, like a pause or dropping of the voice, but
as far as I know the clues are there.
BTW, technically they are paragraphs because they contain at least the
paragraph mark. But they don't contain any "real" content so are considered
empty or blank.
We haven't had a need for double returns at the end of paragraphs nor double
spaces between sentences since the retirement of typewriters in the 1980s.
35 years later and most folks haven't yet learned about before/after spacing
in paragraph styles.
Sigh.
We still have a ways to go!

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-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of Kevin
Prince
Sent: Monday, November 21, 2022 3:56 PM
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: [WebAIM] Blank paragraphs

One of my personal bugbears, in Word and the Web, is the use of a carriage
return to provide space (It should be done using styles/css).

We discussed it at a team meeting and our screenreader user was horrified -
"How would I know when a paragraph ends?"

He didn't know about navigating by paragraph with his screenreader. My
position remains that anything we write for a wider audience should use
styles for spacing and there's a responsibility on AT users to learn their
AT. It doesn't help that 99% of the world thinks tapping return twice is
what you do at the end of a paragraph but we can work on that.

If he wants an empty paragraph in documents written for him then I'll do
that as a reasonable accommodation while gently helping him move along.

Thoughts?


Kevin


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Kevin Prince

Product Accessibility & Usability Consultant



E <EMAIL REMOVED>

Christchurch

fostermoore.com

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