RE: Punctuation in JAWS
- From: "Adrian Spratt" <Adrian@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 24 May 2010 22:13:31 -0400
Hi, Bobby.
I had to look up "WBT" to find out that it means Web-based training, so I
take it you're developing Web-based training materials.
So my next question is whether you're proposing to minimize the punctuation
in these materials to spare JAWS users distraction and clutter. If so, you
raise a good point.
As other listers have said, we can set punctuation to different levels, from
"none" for fast reading to "all" when a document needs proofreading. For
most courses, a JAWS user isn't interested in editing, so the likely setting
is "none" or my own preference, "some" punctuation.
Although other listers have replied that they don't need to be told
punctuation during ordinary reading sessions, there are times an inability
to pick it up can be confusing. This goes to how JAWS intones punctuation.
It pauses at commas and slightly longer at periods, and it takes on an
interrogative tone at question marks. However, different synthesizers handle
other punctuation marks differently. For example, I believe FS recently
inserted a pause after semicolons for Eloquence. However, my synthesizer,
Dectalk Express, does not pause there, which often causes me confusion. My
synthesizer also does not change intonation at exclamation marks.
When human beings (as opposed to JAWS) narrate text, they send signals to
account for ambiguous punctuation, but JAWS can't do that. So a materials
developer like you, sensitive to this concern, might stay alert for such
situations.
An example of JAWS failing to convey the author's meaning is a sentence
ending in an exclamation mark. People often use this punctuation to show
that the intent is ironic. A JAWS user may well miss this signal and take
the statement at face value.
Quotations can be another area of confusion. Sometimes I need to know which
part of a passage is the author's own text and which part is in quotation
marks. Assuming I'm in none or some punctuation mode, I will need to stop
"say all" and go word by word or even character by character through the
passage. This can be time-consuming, but I'm unaware of a better
alternative, other than switching between punctuation modes. However, an
area that can be almost impossible to figure out is when quotations are not
marked by quotes, but set off as indented text. Here, the signal is strictly
visual. A materials developer who can address this problem would be doing
JAWS users a big favor.
Of course, a JAWS user who works with braille instead of a voice doesn't
face these difficulties.
As they say here, HTH!
_____
From: jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Garcia, Bobby
Sent: Monday, May 24, 2010 1:08 PM
To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Punctuation in JAWS
Hey, gang! I'm developing some WBTs that are being tested for accessibility
using JAWS. What I noticed is that JAWS reads punctuation and I'm curious to
get some different views on this.
Take, for example, the following statement: I never apologize (I'm sorry,
that's just the way I am).
Jaws will read: I never apologize open parens I'm sorry.
My question is, does this take away/add to the user's experience? Is it a
hindrance to hear that, is it superfluous, or do any users benefit from
visualizing the parens? I mean, I know I can always tailor my content to
avoid using excessive punctuation but I'd still like to know how different
people feel about this.
Bobby Garcia
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