[html4all] ACRONYM and ABBR

[Robert J Burns]

On Apr 24, 2008, at 7:08 AM, Leif Halvard Silli wrote:
> One view is that no @title means that the abbreviaiton is an  
> acronym. [1]
>
> However, when I tested VoiceOver and Fire Vox, it turned out that
> ACRONYM and ABBR elements were read the same way. Thus, NATO was read
> Enn,Ay,Tee,Oh.
>
> Which leads me to assume that acronyms are not read as acronyms  
> anyhow,
> and thus AT users are happy with acronyms being marked up as ABBR.  
> Right?

Something like NATO should be pronounced by AT as "Nay - tow" whether  
or not it is marked up with ABBR of ACRONYM. Pronunciations like that  
should be drawn from a pronunciation dictionary for the product (in  
the same way word processors have spelling dictionaries). ABBR should  
be reserved for either abbreviations not widely used or newly coined  
abbreviations. In such cases more information than simply pronouncing  
it as a word is needed (is "Nah - two" or "Nat - oh" or "Nay - toe",  
etc.). The wiki proposal I drafted with the cooperation of others  
provides the needed hooks for that[1]


On Apr 24, 2008, at 10:23 AM, Joshue O Connor wrote:

> Leif Halvard Silli wrote:
>> Jason White 24-04-2008 06:06:
> [...]
>>> It would be better to have only one element, as then the  
>>> interminable
>>> disagreements and confusions surrounding the acronym/abbreviation  
>>> distinction
>>> are eliminated.
>>>
>>
>> True.
>
> Agreed. However, If support was better for <acronym> then I think it  
> is
> a fine useful element.

I think the problem Jason refers to here is not related to support for  
ACRONYM. They problem is that the distinction between acronyms and  
abbreviations is not great enough to warrant separate elements. It  
would be better to simply markup unusual abbreviated forms and then  
provide pronunciation hints which is the only significant semantic  
distinction an author wants to make here.

>> Which leads me to assume that acronyms are not read as acronyms  
>> anyhow,
>> and thus AT users are happy with acronyms being marked up as ABBR.  
>> Right?
>
> I think so. It is mostly nerds who get in a flap about such things.
>

Agreed, which is why I don't think we need to continue having separate  
elements.

Take care,
Rob

[1]: <http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/DefiningTermsEtc>