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Re: ABBR vs. just spelling it out.

for

From: Kynn Bartlett
Date: Mar 22, 2006 12:10PM

On 3/22/06, Penny Roberts < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>
> Kynn Bartlett wrote:
> > complex words to likewise be defined each time they appear? Which
> > disabled populations need acronym expansions but don't need word
> > definitions?
>
> Who said anything about just disabled populations? Accessibility is for
> *everyone*, right?


No, web accessibility in a general sense is about disabled populations. For
example:

"The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) develops strategies, guidelines, and
resources to help make the Web accessible to people with disabilities."

Web accessibility is primarily about people with specific needs due to
disabilities. There are benefits which extend to other user groups as well,
sure.

But no, you can't just pretend that web accessibility is about you
(presuming from your comment that you're not a person with disabilities)
instead of about enabling access for populations with disabilities.

Expanded acronyms are useful for all sorts of people
> (me for one); but I don't want them written out in full every time: I
> *want* the option of hovering and finding out it what it stands for.


It's nice that you want something. It would be nice if you could get what
you want. But web accessibility is not about what people without
disabilities find pleasant or useful.

You could make an argument that it's good practice to provide <abbr>, and
sure, I agree with you. It's also good practice to have attractive fonts and
nice color design, and so on. But for the most part these are not
accessibility arguments per se if they address "everyone," they're simply
good web design arguments.

Accessibility is a subset of good web design that focuses on people with
disabilities. And so far, tagging up every short form of a word with an
<abbr> tag doesn't sound very much like an accessibility issue, if there not
identifiable disabled populations that will benefit from this. (Feel free to
prove me wrong by identifying some.)

--Kynn