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Number of posts in this thread: 8 (In chronological order)

From: Tim Beadle
Date: Wed, Apr 30 2008 6:10AM
Subject: Re: Use of abbr for the scientiifc equivalent of a vernacular name
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On Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 1:02 PM, Andy Mabbett < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> Can anyone see any accessibility issues with this pattern:
>
> <abbr title="Passer domesticus">House Sparrow</abbr>
>
> I suspect the former, but would like confirmation; or otherwise, preferably.
>
> Perhaps we need a <pseudonym> element? ;-)

It's surely a similar problem to the abbr datetime pattern in
Microformats? Anyone who has configured abbreviation expansion will
hear the Latin name, rather than the English one, and may be confused.

Could you make it a user-configurable option? i.e. "Display species
names in Latin" / "Display species names in English".

Tim

From: Andy Mabbett
Date: Wed, Apr 30 2008 6:20AM
Subject: Use of abbr for the scientiifc equivalent of a vernacular name
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Can anyone see any accessibility issues with this pattern:

<abbr title="Passer domesticus">House Sparrow</abbr>

I suspect the former, but would like confirmation; or otherwise, preferably.

Perhaps we need a <pseudonym> element? ;-)

--
Andy Mabbett
** via webmail **

From: Dan Conley
Date: Wed, Apr 30 2008 6:30AM
Subject: Re: Use of abbr for the scientiifc equivalent of a vernacular name
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I think abbreviation tags should only be used for abbreviations. If
you'd like to get tooltip popups, another option would be to enclose it
in a span tag with a title, and then style the css to display a dotted
underline like abbreviations do. So, <span title="Passer
domesticus">House Sparrow</span>.

I'm not sure how screen readers would handle this, though, but it seems
to be at least slightly better.

Dan Conley
Information Specialist
Center for International Information Research and Exchange (CIRRIE)
University at Buffalo, Health Sciences Library B6
Phone: (716) 829-3900 x145
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
http://cirrie.buffalo.edu

Tim Beadle wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 1:02 PM, Andy Mabbett < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>> Can anyone see any accessibility issues with this pattern:
>>
>> <abbr title="Passer domesticus">House Sparrow</abbr>
>>
>> I suspect the former, but would like confirmation; or otherwise, preferably.
>>
>> Perhaps we need a <pseudonym> element? ;-)
>
> It's surely a similar problem to the abbr datetime pattern in
> Microformats? Anyone who has configured abbreviation expansion will
> hear the Latin name, rather than the English one, and may be confused.
>
> Could you make it a user-configurable option? i.e. "Display species
> names in Latin" / "Display species names in English".
>
> Tim
>

From: Andy Mabbett
Date: Wed, Apr 30 2008 7:20AM
Subject: Re: Use of abbr for the scientiifc equivalent of a vernacular name
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On Wed, April 30, 2008 13:08, Tim Beadle wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 1:02 PM, Andy Mabbett < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
> wrote:
>
>> Can anyone see any accessibility issues with this pattern:
>>
>> <abbr title="Passer domesticus">House Sparrow</abbr>
>>
>> I suspect the former, but would like confirmation; or otherwise,
>> preferably.

> It's surely a similar problem to the abbr datetime pattern in
> Microformats?

Yes; that's the context in which I was thinking of using it.

It's arguable that "House Sparrow" is an abbreviation of "Passer
domesticus", if you interpret "abbreviation" loosely enough, but...

> Anyone who has configured abbreviation expansion will
> hear the Latin name, rather than the English one, and may be confused.

...that was my concern also.

> Could you make it a user-configurable option? i.e. "Display species
> names in Latin" / "Display species names in English".

Not in the circumstances where I am thinking of using it.

--
Andy Mabbett
** via webmail **

From: Steve Green
Date: Wed, Apr 30 2008 7:30AM
Subject: Re: Use of abbr for the scientiifc equivalent of a vernacular name
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The 'title' attribute is not available to many types of users such as those
with text browsers, screen readers, voice recognition, keyboard navigation
and other adaptive technologies.

The Latin name ought to be in the page text at least once.

Steve

From: Andy Mabbett
Date: Wed, Apr 30 2008 8:20AM
Subject: Re: Use of abbr for the scientiifc equivalent of a vernacular name
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On Wed, April 30, 2008 14:22, Steve Green wrote:

Please don't top-post.

> The Latin name ought to be in the page text at least once.

That's a rather sweeping statement; surely it depends on the context?

--
Andy Mabbett
** via webmail **

From: Dan Conley
Date: Wed, Apr 30 2008 8:30AM
Subject: Re: Use of abbr for the scientiifc equivalent of a vernacular name
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Steve Green wrote:
> The 'title' attribute is not available to many types of users such as
those
> with text browsers, screen readers, voice recognition, keyboard
navigation
> and other adaptive technologies.

Is the abbr tag accessible to keyboard users? There was an ALA article
about total keyboard accessibility a while back
(http://www.alistapart.com/articles/hattrick/) that advocated making the
abbreviations also link to a glossary of terms. This leads to other
problems, though, with a ton of links to tab through, etc...

Andy Mabbett wrote:
>> The Latin name ought to be in the page text at least once.
>
> That's a rather sweeping statement; surely it depends on the context?

Well, if it's only available in the title of an abbreviation tag then it
won't be able to be accessed by all users. This may be fine (I get the
impression that this is going to be used as a 'bonus feature,' or
something similar, so it may not be the most important thing if only
most users can access it.

The problem is that most accessibility fixes seem to work only for ~75%
of users...

Dan Conley
Information Specialist
Center for International Information Research and Exchange (CIRRIE)
University at Buffalo, Health Sciences Library B6
Phone: (716) 829-3900 x145
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
http://cirrie.buffalo.edu

From: Steve Green
Date: Wed, Apr 30 2008 8:40AM
Subject: Re: Use of abbr for the scientiifc equivalent of a vernacular name
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