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For some users, it is difficult to infer the meaning of a word or phrase from context, especially when the word or phrase is used in an unusual way or has been given a specialized meaning; for these users the ability to read and understand may depend on the availability of specific definitions or the expanded forms of acronyms or abbreviations.
Abbreviations and Acronyms
Provide the expanded form of abbreviations to users.
Some people, including those with cognitive disabilities, may not understand the shortened form of words.
This is also helpful to screen reader users.
This also helps people who:
have difficulty decoding words;
rely on screen magnifiers (magnification may reduce contextual cues);
have limited memory;
have difficulty using context to aid understanding.
Abbreviations may confuse some readers in different ways:
Some abbreviations do not look like normal words and cannot be pronounced according to the usual rules of the language. For example, the English word "room" is abbreviated as "rm," which does not correspond to any English word or phoneme. The user has to know that "rm" is an abbreviation for the word "room" in order to say it correctly.
Sometimes, the same abbreviation means different things in different contexts. For example, in the English sentence "Dr. Johnson lives on Boswell Dr.," the first "Dr." is an abbreviation for "Doctor" and the second instance is an abbreviation for the word "Drive" (a word that means "street"). Users must be able to understand the context in order to know what the abbreviations mean.
Some acronyms spell common words but are used in different ways. For example, "JAWS" is an acronym for a screen reader whose full name is "Job Access with Speech." It is also a common English word referring to the part of the mouth that holds the teeth. The acronym is used differently than the common word.
Some acronyms sound like common words but are spelled differently. For example, the acronym for Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language, S M I L, is pronounced like the English word "smile."
Whenever possible try and steer away from using acronyms and symbols. Screen readers try to pronounce acronyms, if there are sufficient vowels/consonants to be pronounceable. Otherwise, they will try to spell out the letters.
Examples:
Spell out “CA” as “California”. Screen readers will read out CA as “KA”
Spell out “BR” as “Bedroom”.
Spell out months, instead of “Dec.” say “December”
Instead of “$75,000/year” say “$75,000 per year”
Instead of “1-3 people” say “1 to 3 people”
Instead of “9:00am - 12:00pm” say “9:00am to 12:00pm”
Instead of “(415) 444-8989” say “415-444-8989”
Please see more detailed information on how to comply with this standard.
Unusual Words
Provide definitions for technical jargon and unusual terms so that more people, especially those with cognitive disabilities, can understand the meaning of content.
Certain disabilities make it difficult to understand nonliteral word usage and specialized words or usage.
Certain disabilities make it difficult to understand figurative language or specialized usage.
Providing such mechanisms is vital for these audiences.
Please see more detailed information on how to comply with this standard.
Pronunciation
Some people, including those with cognitive disabilities, may not understand the meaning of content.
Indicate how to pronounce a word, where its meaning is otherwise unclear.
Help people who are blind, people who have low vision, and people with reading disabilities to understand content in cases where meaning depends on pronunciation.
Often words or characters have different meanings, each with its own pronunciation.
The meaning of such words or characters can usually be determined from the context of the sentence.
However, for more complex or ambiguous sentences, or for some languages, the meaning of the word cannot be easily determined or determined at all without knowing the pronunciation.
When the sentence is read aloud and the screen reader reads the word using the wrong pronunciation, it can be even more difficult to understand than when read visually.
When words are ambiguous or indeterminate unless the pronunciation is known, then providing some means of determining the pronunciation is needed.
If the proper pronunciation can be determined from the context of the sentence, then nothing is required. If it cannot then some mechanism for determining the proper pronunciation would be required.
Additionally, in some languages certain characters can be pronounced in different ways. In Japanese, for example, there are characters like Han characters(Kanji) that have multiple pronunciations. Screen readers may speak the characters incorrectly without the information on pronunciation. When read incorrectly, the content will not make sense to users.
Please see more detailed information on how to comply with this standard.
Links
Ensure that all links are informative, and meaningful when read out of context. Link text should be a meaningful representation of the link target.
Screen-reader users may be unable to easily access contextual information related to a link.
Single word links represent small targets for persons who have difficulty controlling a pointing device due to motor impairments. Placing long lists of text-based links close together in rows or columns increases the probability of a mouse error.
Avoid the use of single word links (“Here”, “More”, “Go”). Links should be clear, descriptive and able to stand alone.
Avoid enclosing text links in brackets, braces, parentheses.
Avoid “Click Here”
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Please see more detailed information on this in our Reading Level section.
WCAG Related Guidelines
3.1.3 Unusual Words (Level AAA)
3.1.4 Abbreviations (Level AAA)
3.1.5 Reading Level (Level AAA)3.1.6 Pronunciation (Level AAA)