[uf-discuss] Re: Request for help from screen reader users from the BBC

[Belov, Charles]

Hope this helps,
Charles Belov
SFMTA Webmaster

-----Original Message-----
From: microformats-discuss-bounces at microformats.org
[mailto:microformats-discuss-bounces at microformats.org] On Behalf Of
microformats-discuss-request at microformats.org
Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2008 6:51 AM
To: microformats-discuss at microformats.org
Subject: microformats-discuss Digest, Vol 36, Issue 13

Send microformats-discuss mailing list submissions to
	microformats-discuss at microformats.org

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
	http://microformats.org/mailman/listinfo/microformats-discuss
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
	microformats-discuss-request at microformats.org

You can reach the person managing the list at
	microformats-discuss-owner at microformats.org

When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than
"Re: Contents of microformats-discuss digest..."

------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 13:41:25 +0100
>From: "Alasdair King" <alasdairking at gmail.com>
>Subject: Re: [uf-discuss] Request for help from screen reader users
>	from the	BBC
>To: "Microformats Discuss" <microformats-discuss at microformats.org>
>Message-ID:
>	<7df2c90b0805280541r1f0a7349y8f62b4aec838be50 at mail.gmail.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

>(snip)

>3 Working in web accessibility leads one to mix with highly-technical
professional 
>screenreader users. They should not, I argue, be your target audience.
A highly-technical 
>JAWS user will write a script to get round ABBR problems and distribute
it to other users, or >just use the webpages for sighted people, or turn
off ABBR again. If microformats take off 
>then Freedom Scientific will make sure that script ships with JAWS
anyway, and all the 
>vendors will follow suit. I am, therefore, as a professional working in
software for vision-
>impaired people, not worried about the impact on screenreader users of
the ABBR tag, since I >think the temporary and minor disbenefits are
outweighed by the major benefits.

>(snip)

I am worried, because if ABBR titles are suppressed then they can't be
used for their legitimate use to expand abbreviations, and we are left
with a Gresham's Law of Attributes where nonstandard uses of attributes
drive out standard uses of attributes.

Hope this helps,
Charles "Chas" Belov
SFMTA Webmaster