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Thread: Spell out "Q&A"
Number of posts in this thread: 9 (In chronological order)
From: Piscitelli, JoAnn
Date: Thu, Apr 05 2018 1:30PM
Subject: Spell out "Q&A"
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Hello,
This is my first time posting to this forum.
Can anyone let me know (or confirm my instinct) if "Q&A" should be spelled out, Questions & Answers, in an H1 tag?
Thank you so much,
Jo
From: Steve Green
Date: Thu, Apr 05 2018 2:25PM
Subject: Re: Spell out "Q&A"
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I would say so unless there is a very good reason not to. The full phrase is not particularly long so it won't wrap onto a second line even on a small mobile device.
Steve Green
Managing Director
Test Partners Ltd
From: Piscitelli, JoAnn
Date: Thu, Apr 05 2018 3:00PM
Subject: Re: Spell out "Q&A"
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Thank you so much!!
On 4/5/18, 4:25 PM, "WebAIM-Forum on behalf of Steve Green" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = on behalf of = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
I would say so unless there is a very good reason not to. The full phrase is not particularly long so it won't wrap onto a second line even on a small mobile device.
Steve Green
Managing Director
Test Partners Ltd
From: Jared Smith
Date: Thu, Apr 05 2018 4:49PM
Subject: Re: Spell out "Q&A"
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> Can anyone let me know (or confirm my instinct) if "Q&A" should be spelled out, Questions & Answers, in an H1 tag?
This isn't (or shouldn't be) an accessibility-specific question.
You'll want to consider the impact of this initialism for everyone. If
you think Q&A makes sense for your audience, then use it. If not,
spell it out. Just consider that the overhead of scanning and reading
"Questions & Answers" vs. "Q&A" or "Frequently Asked Questions" vs.
"FAQ" is pretty notable, and may be higher than correlating the
initialisms to their meaning.
The danger of considering content expansions only for users with
disabilities (perhaps due to how a screen reader might read these -
"FAQ", for example, can raise eyebrows when read quickly as a word by
a screen reader) is that this approach can quickly sway far the other
direction to overly verbose explanations that can increase overhead
and reading time for everyone.
Thanks,
Jared
From: Tim Harshbarger
Date: Fri, Apr 06 2018 5:45AM
Subject: Re: [EXTERNAL] Spell out "Q&A"
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In case part of the concern was how screen readers read the initialism...
As a screen reader user, I can tell you that we tend to become accustomed to how the screen reader reads text. In fact, I know I become so accustomed to it that I pronounce some things the way the screen reader does and I'm not aware of it until someone asks me about it. For example, SEO. Instead of saying "S E O", I tend to say it like "say-o" which is how the screen reader pronounces it.
Jared provides an excellent rule of thumb... If your general audience would have problem with the initialism then those using screen readers will likely have problems with it. If your general audience wouldn't have problems with it, then people using screen readers are likely use to how the screen reader pronounces that term.
I think the only time it really becomes problematic is with punctuation marks. For example, if you have a message that says something like "Passwords cannot include %, ?, or /" someone using a screen reader might miss those punctuation marks depending on how they have their screen reader setup. But I think that can be easily dealt with in most cases.
Thanks!
Tim
From: Piscitelli, JoAnn
Date: Fri, Apr 06 2018 7:39AM
Subject: Re: [EXTERNAL] Spell out "Q&A"
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Thank you all so much for all the input.
I work at an Ivy League university and we are now officially falling inline with making our websites accessible. So, all this is truly helpful and appreciated.
Jo
On 4/6/18, 7:45 AM, "WebAIM-Forum on behalf of Tim Harshbarger" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = on behalf of = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
In case part of the concern was how screen readers read the initialism...
As a screen reader user, I can tell you that we tend to become accustomed to how the screen reader reads text. In fact, I know I become so accustomed to it that I pronounce some things the way the screen reader does and I'm not aware of it until someone asks me about it. For example, SEO. Instead of saying "S E O", I tend to say it like "say-o" which is how the screen reader pronounces it.
Jared provides an excellent rule of thumb... If your general audience would have problem with the initialism then those using screen readers will likely have problems with it. If your general audience wouldn't have problems with it, then people using screen readers are likely use to how the screen reader pronounces that term.
I think the only time it really becomes problematic is with punctuation marks. For example, if you have a message that says something like "Passwords cannot include %, ?, or /" someone using a screen reader might miss those punctuation marks depending on how they have their screen reader setup. But I think that can be easily dealt with in most cases.
Thanks!
Tim
From: Piscitelli, JoAnn
Date: Fri, Apr 06 2018 8:08AM
Subject: Re: [EXTERNAL] Spell out "Q&A"
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I have just one more nit-picky question regarding the abbreviation of Q&A: is it best to type Q&A without spaces or with, Q & A? Would that difference impact how a screen reader would read it back to the user?
Jo
On 4/6/18, 7:45 AM, "WebAIM-Forum on behalf of Tim Harshbarger" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = on behalf of = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
In case part of the concern was how screen readers read the initialism...
As a screen reader user, I can tell you that we tend to become accustomed to how the screen reader reads text. In fact, I know I become so accustomed to it that I pronounce some things the way the screen reader does and I'm not aware of it until someone asks me about it. For example, SEO. Instead of saying "S E O", I tend to say it like "say-o" which is how the screen reader pronounces it.
Jared provides an excellent rule of thumb... If your general audience would have problem with the initialism then those using screen readers will likely have problems with it. If your general audience wouldn't have problems with it, then people using screen readers are likely use to how the screen reader pronounces that term.
I think the only time it really becomes problematic is with punctuation marks. For example, if you have a message that says something like "Passwords cannot include %, ?, or /" someone using a screen reader might miss those punctuation marks depending on how they have their screen reader setup. But I think that can be easily dealt with in most cases.
Thanks!
Tim
From: Steve Green
Date: Fri, Apr 06 2018 8:19AM
Subject: Re: [EXTERNAL] Spell out "Q&A"
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That is a heuristic that will vary from screen reader to screen reader. I would not usually worry about that level of detail unless there are specific constructions that I know behave badly or if people have problems in user testing. It will definitely read as expected if you include spaces, but if you exclude them you can't tell what will happen.
Steve
From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Fri, Apr 06 2018 9:16AM
Subject: Re: [EXTERNAL]Spell out "Q&A"
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I remember going for a job interview for programming and told the guy
I had a lot of experience with 'C number'. (screen readers read the
hashtag, '#' symbols as 'number).
The guydidn't understand what I was talking about for awhile, #blindMoment.
As to your question,Jared put it well. In general, if an abbreviation
has become better known than the expanded form (e.g. "CIA" "FBI" or
"ATM") use it over the expanded form, for all users.
Then there are the cases of the short form and the long form being
equally well known, such as NYC or FAQ. Well, if you can use less
text, use it, you could code it in an <abbr> tag with the title
attribute containing the expanded form if you think it will help you
users, hint, it will not help screenreader users but it might help
users with cognitive impairments.
Then there are the acronyms and abbreviations you know well but your
audience doesn't.
For those, you should spell them out in context the first time you use
them, e.g. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and then code
them as an abbreviation, optionally with the expanded form, for all
subsequent occurances on the page.
The only screen reader thing I can think of off the top of my head is
"do not writ text withall all upper case letters for emphasis".
Some screen readers will spell out the words when written in all upper
case, so phrases such as SITUATIONS THAT REQUIRE EXTRA ATTENTION can
get awfully confusing for a screen reader user. Use CSS, the <em>
element, or the <strong> elements to provide the visual effect you are
going for, don't change the text.
Also, congrats, I am happy that my old college, Yale, (I am a 2002
graduate) finally got their accessibility lead!
-B
On 4/6/18, Steve Green < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> That is a heuristic that will vary from screen reader to screen reader. I
> would not usually worry about that level of detail unless there are specific
> constructions that I know behave badly or if people have problems in user
> testing. It will definitely read as expected if you include spaces, but if
> you exclude them you can't tell what will happen.
>
> Steve
>
>