The Crazy Alphabet on Your Website
1/28/2004
Having thoroughly beat up the abbr element, it’s time to turn our attention to its close sibling (but definitely not twin) acronym. First, a quick note about the differences between abbreviations and acronyms. Yes, I know. We learned this in elementary school. But even the most brilliant of us sometimes forget — it’s a busy world out there, and we can’t always remember every little detail of every little thing. So:
Abbreviation: Making a word shorter by removing lots of letters. Some examples: etc, req’d, cont’d, or ms.
Spelling It Out
1/22/2004
Usually, the abbr and acronym elements are discussed in the same section, but I’ve never liked doing things the same old way. So, let’s start with abbr, and we’ll discuss acronym separately. abbr is the abbreviation element. This inline item allow you to spell out the meanings of abbreviations.
But why? Everyone knows what I mean when I say req’d. It means required. No, it means requested. No…I’m absolutely, positively certain it means requisitioned. Or maybe not.
You could argue that the meaning of the abbreviation will be made clear from context. And your tax return forms are a breeze to complete, right? For example, in the following sentence, my meaning is perfectly clear:
What was req’d?
Silly example, and I’m sure nobody writes that way, right? But can you be so sure that your meaning is perfectly clear to every person reading your website (and every person listening to your website)?
Why not make it easy on everyone and expand your abbreviation. The markup is ridiculously simple (even more so if you have an HTML editor that reduces most of the work to a mouseclick or two. To expand an abbreviation, simply do the following:
<abbr title="requested">req'd</abbr>
Yes, I know. Too simple. So simple you don’t know why you haven’t always done it (probably that’s because it hasn’t always been an option). Now when your abbreviation is encountered, screen readers will spell out what you mean and a tooltip will appear when other users mouse over the item. Yes, I’m perfectly aware that this wonderful feature isn’t fully supported by browsers everywhere (but, frankly, isn’t it time we forced Microsoft and others to comply with the standards?), but abbr is a wonderful invention. Use it!
Accessibility and Public Accommodation
This article from the Christian Science Monitor brings up a rather interesting question about states meeting ADA requirements. The article specifically addresses the need for accessibility in public accommodations — physical buildings. The conclusion drawn in the article is that states should meet Federal standards.
Many states and local governments do voluntarily comply with the provisions of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. They recognize that when it comes to their websites, maximum accessiblity by constituents is critical. With the trend toward e-government applications — which save both constituents and government staff time and money — access is doubly important. For these government agencies, accessibility makes good business sense. What I find perplexing is that commercial entities don’t feel the same way.
Zeldman’s Section 508 Presentation
1/15/2004
As usual, Zeldman is right on target in his Accessibility and Section 508 presentation. He touches on a couple of topics I’d like to expand on at length in future postings.
- Dual use design. If done properly you shouldn’t have to create a separate accessible version of your site.
- If you’re looking for a business case to justify accessibility, think of Google as a blind user. Accessibility and web standards will also make your site more search engine friendly.