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From: Radhika Soni
Date: Fri, Jan 21 2022 2:19PM
Subject: ALL CAPS- Recomendation
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Happy Friday!

I just wanted to know if it is ok to use ALL CAPS for some of the content
while designing the website. I know, it is not a good practice to use ALL
CAPS , as it can cause readability issues.

As I have seen that NVDA and VO do read all caps as words instead of
letters, even when they are not *CSS* styled using *text-transform:*

But not sure if all the screen readers read capital letters as words or not?

Looking forward to hearing from you about your thoughts if any screen
reader would cause any issue.

Regards,
-Radhika

From: Paul Rayius
Date: Fri, Jan 21 2022 2:25PM
Subject: Re: ALL CAPS- Recomendation
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Hi Radhika,
Another thing to consider about text in all capital letters, beyond just "how a screen reader will handle it" is that some people who have dyslexia will have a harder time reading blocks of text that's in all caps.
I hope this helps,
Paul

Paul Rayius
Vice-President of Training
CommonLook

From: L Snider
Date: Fri, Jan 21 2022 2:26PM
Subject: Re: ALL CAPS- Recomendation
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Hi Radhika,

I always advise clients to limit the use of ALL CAPS. It is harder to read
for everyone, but people with low vision, who don't use screen readers,
have a difficult time with it.

Cheers

Lisa

On Fri, Jan 21, 2022 at 5:20 PM Radhika Soni < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

> Happy Friday!
>
> I just wanted to know if it is ok to use ALL CAPS for some of the content
> while designing the website. I know, it is not a good practice to use ALL
> CAPS , as it can cause readability issues.
>
> As I have seen that NVDA and VO do read all caps as words instead of
> letters, even when they are not *CSS* styled using *text-transform:*
>
> But not sure if all the screen readers read capital letters as words or
> not?
>
> Looking forward to hearing from you about your thoughts if any screen
> reader would cause any issue.
>
> Regards,
> -Radhika
> > > > >

From: Jeremy Echols
Date: Fri, Jan 21 2022 2:42PM
Subject: Re: ALL CAPS- Recomendation
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Also depends on the all-caps text. Sometimes words will be read as if they were acronyms, depending on a variety of heuristics. When I capitalize "is" mid-sentence, NVDA likes to pronounce the letters "I" and "S" rather than treat it as a word with any emphasis. e.g., "Jeremy IS here today".

Depending on the surrounding context and how "smart" the screen reader is trying to be, you can get annoying results. Probably not the worst thing you can do, but I agree with Lisa - you should limit use of all caps as much as possible.

I still do not understand why designers love to throw all-caps in so many places. It's like they forgot we have bold, italics, and font sizes when we want visual callouts (e.g., table headers, page titles, etc.)

From: glen walker
Date: Fri, Jan 21 2022 6:50PM
Subject: Re: ALL CAPS- Recomendation
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I often hear it mispronounced with CONTACT US where it says U S (as in USA)
instead of "us".

I agree that it's rare you need all caps.

From: Barry
Date: Sat, Jan 22 2022 1:39AM
Subject: Re: ALL CAPS- Recomendation
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To add to what has already been posted, I would reluctantly allow two or three words in menu items, for example, but not in titles or text unless they are acronyms. In that case, even some of those might use title case if they are conventionally read out as a word instead of letters, such as Nato.

Blocks of capitalised letters are square, whereas all sighted people read words quicker by recognising the shapes that the letters make in combination as a whole in a word.

It's estimated that sighted readers read all caps words 25% slower than non-capitalised. For someone who is partially sighted or has learning disability, this could make reading considerably longer.

For people with dyslexia, the fully capitalised words can just swim about as if they are alive.

From: Peter Shikli
Date: Sat, Jan 22 2022 3:25PM
Subject: Re: ALL CAPS- Recomendation
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Two more reasons in support of the folks against the use of all caps.

1) Mixed case was not invented for its aesthetics but because it
improves reading speed and comprehension for everyone, including the
disabled.

2) All caps has become accepted among many digerati as shouting.
Unintended anger may result.

Cheers,
Peter Shikli
Access2online Inc.

From: Schroeder, Karole
Date: Mon, Jan 24 2022 7:52AM
Subject: Re: ALL CAPS- Recomendation
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Same question but different format. We talk about using rich text editor options like bold and italics. What if it is plain text? What is an appropriate way to emphasize text where no additional semantics can be added?

Thanks!

Karole Schroeder, CPACC
Electronic and Information Resources Accessibility Coordinator
Office of Information Security
Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi
6300 Ocean Dr., Corpus Christi, TX 78412
P 361.825.3154 | E = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =

From: Cervone, Gian Carlo (gcervone)
Date: Mon, Jan 24 2022 11:25AM
Subject: Re: ALL CAPS- Recomendation
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Hello:

One way is to use underscores at the beginning and of the text like:

I _really_ like Bulleit bourbon!

-= G =-

Gian Carlo Cervone
Web Manager
SUNY Brockport
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = <mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > ' 585-395-5073




On Jan 24, 2022, at 9:52 AM, Schroeder, Karole < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = <mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >> wrote:

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Same question but different format. We talk about using rich text editor options like bold and italics. What if it is plain text? What is an appropriate way to emphasize text where no additional semantics can be added?

Thanks!

Karole Schroeder, CPACC
Electronic and Information Resources Accessibility Coordinator
Office of Information Security
Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi
6300 Ocean Dr., Corpus Christi, TX 78412
P 361.825.3154 | E = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = <mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >