word with symbol in it - how to mark up?

[nice.guy.nige]

Hi,

Hit this snag at work. One of the departments is called "Valu£able Skills"
(First word pronounced pronounced "valuable". There is a Pound Sterling
(GBP) symbol in between "Valu" and "able"), and want the phrase to appear as
is on their web page. All simple enough to do, but how do I mark this up in
the HTML? Can't leave it as it is, as I dread to think what it will sound
like when a screen-reader hits it! I've googled, and had a trawl through the
HTML 4.01 specs, but can't find any reference to a <madeupword> element!

Any and all wisdom on this matter deeply appreciated.

Cheers,
Nige

--
Nigel Moss.

Email address is not valid. (e-mail address removed). Take the dog out!
http://www.nigenet.org.uk | Boycott E$$O!! http://www.stopesso.com
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[Kris]

Hit this snag at work. One of the departments is called "Valu£able Skills"
(First word pronounced pronounced "valuable". There is a Pound Sterling
(GBP) symbol in between "Valu" and "able"), and want the phrase to appear as
is on their web page. All simple enough to do, but how do I mark this up in
the HTML? Can't leave it as it is, as I dread to think what it will sound
like when a screen-reader hits it! I've googled, and had a trawl through the
HTML 4.01 specs, but can't find any reference to a <madeupword> element!

Actually, what is it the word supposed to sound like? When asked what
department they work in, what do the employees of "Valu£able Skills"
answer?

 

[nice.guy.nige]

Actually, what is it the word supposed to sound like? When asked what
department they work in, what do the employees of "Valu£able Skills"
answer?

From my OP: First word pronounced "valuable".

There's only one person there, and she's Spanish...!

Cheers,
Nige

--
Nigel Moss.

Email address is not valid. (e-mail address removed). Take the dog out!
http://www.nigenet.org.uk | Boycott E$$O!! http://www.stopesso.com
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[Chet]

Hi,

Hit this snag at work. One of the departments is called "Valu£able Skills"
(First word pronounced pronounced "valuable". There is a Pound Sterling
(GBP) symbol in between "Valu" and "able"), and want the phrase to appear as
is on their web page. All simple enough to do, but how do I mark this up in
the HTML? Can't leave it as it is, as I dread to think what it will sound
like when a screen-reader hits it! I've googled, and had a trawl through the
HTML 4.01 specs, but can't find any reference to a <madeupword> element!

Any and all wisdom on this matter deeply appreciated.

Cheers,
Nige

--
Nigel Moss.

Email address is not valid. (e-mail address removed). Take the dog out!
http://www.nigenet.org.uk | Boycott E$$O!! http://www.stopesso.com
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is very, very busy!

You might try using

Valu£able Skills

The £ is the escaped pound sterling symbol so the above
would display correctly but I'm not sure what a screenreader
might do with it.

hth

 

[Spartanicus]

Hit this snag at work. One of the departments is called "Valu£able Skills"
(First word pronounced pronounced "valuable". There is a Pound Sterling
(GBP) symbol in between "Valu" and "able"), and want the phrase to appear as
is on their web page. All simple enough to do, but how do I mark this up in
the HTML? Can't leave it as it is, as I dread to think what it will sound
like when a screen-reader hits it! I've googled, and had a trawl through the
HTML 4.01 specs, but can't find any reference to a <madeupword> element!

<img src="Valu£able_Skills.png" alt="Valuable Skills">

 

[Disco Octopus]

Hi,

Hit this snag at work. One of the departments is called "Valu£able
Skills" (First word pronounced pronounced "valuable". There is a
Pound Sterling (GBP) symbol in between "Valu" and "able"), and want
the phrase to appear as is on their web page. All simple enough to
do, but how do I mark this up in the HTML? Can't leave it as it is,
as I dread to think what it will sound like when a screen-reader hits
it! I've googled, and had a trawl through the HTML 4.01 specs, but
can't find any reference to a <madeupword> element!

Any and all wisdom on this matter deeply appreciated.

Cheers,
Nige

If you are concerned about aural browsers.....
Will something like this do the trick....

I havent tried any of this, just guessing.


<style type="text/css" media="aural">
span.thethingy { cue-before: uri(valuable.wav); }
</style>

.......

<p>The department called <span class="thethingy">Valu£able</span>
Skills is what it is.</p>


or this.....

<style type="text/css" media="aural">
span.thethingy { cue-before: uri(valuable.wav); }
span.nosound { volume: silent); }
</style>


<p>The department called <span class="thethingy"></span> <span
class="nosound">Valu£able</span> Skills is what it is.</p>

 

[Michael Wilcox]

One of the departments is called "Valu£able
Skills" (First word pronounced pronounced "valuable". There is a
Pound Sterling (GBP) symbol in between "Valu" and "able"), and want
the phrase to appear as is on their web page. All simple enough to
do, but how do I mark this up in the HTML? Can't leave it as it is,
as I dread to think what it will sound like when a screen-reader hits
it!

As others have mentioned, you should use £ to escape the Pound Sterling
sign, then I would suggest the following:

Valu<span style="speak: none;">£</span>able

This would prevent a speach reader from pronouncing the sign, but I'm not
sure if it would figure out if valu and able go together in the same word.

 

[Kris]

Actually, what is it the word supposed to sound like? When asked what
department they work in, what do the employees of "Valu£able Skills"
answer?

From my OP: First word pronounced "valuable".[/QUOTE]

Maybe
<dfn title="Valuable">Valu£able</dfn>?

 

[Spartanicus]

Valu<span style="speak: none;">£</span>able

This would prevent a speach reader from pronouncing the sign

There are no UAs that support aural css, and I see no reason why a
speech browser would skip a character reference.

 

[Michael Wilcox]

There are no UAs that support aural css, and I see no reason why a
speech browser would skip a character reference.

True there are no UAs that support it, but it's not accectable that speech
browser users hear, "Valu--Pound--able."

 

[Jukka K. Korpela]

Maybe
<dfn title="Valuable">Valu£able</dfn>?

Exactly where is the definition of "Valu£able" then? The <dfn> markup
promises that its content is a term being defined, i.e. the occurrence
of a term in its definition.

 

[Jukka K. Korpela]

The £ is the escaped pound sterling symbol so the above
would display correctly but I'm not sure what a screenreader
might do with it.

Exactly the same thing as with the pound sign itself. Why would using a
character reference make a difference?

 

[Jukka K. Korpela]

<img src="Valu£able_Skills.png" alt="Valuable Skills">

Or
Valu<img src="pound.gif" alt="">able Skills

Or
Valuable Skills
and when the pointy-haired boss complains, tell him that the company
will be heavily sued for discrimination, if pages are not accessible to
everyone, including intellectually enabled people who are mentally
blocked from doing business with a company using a moronic
misspelling like "Valu£able".

 

[Spartanicus]

True there are no UAs that support it, but it's not accectable that speech
browser users hear, "Valu--Pound--able."

If you knew that it wasn't going to work, why did you propose it?

 

[Disco Octopus]

in Jukka K. Korpela typed:

Or
Valu<img src="pound.gif" alt="">able Skills

Or
Valuable Skills
and when the pointy-haired boss complains, tell him that the company
will be heavily sued for discrimination, if pages are not accessible
to everyone, including intellectually enabled people who are mentally
blocked from doing business with a company using a moronic
misspelling like "Valu£able".

Well. I am going to have to agree with what /i/ /think/ you are trying to
say.

The OP has given a word "Valu£able" and he/she wants particular U/As to
read/interpret that word in different ways depending on the UA. ie. they
want the word to be "Valu£able" in a web browser such as IE, but they want
the word to be "valuable" in browsers such as speech browser UAs. You might
as well just have some js code in the page that looks for navigator.name,
and do a doc.write depending on the UA.

If that is your point rf, then I must agree, you have shown me the light o
wise one. Now, to make the point clear to the OP....

 

[jake]

In message

There are no UAs that support aural css,
emacspeak?

and I see no reason why a
speech browser would skip a character reference.

 

[jake]

True there are no UAs that support it, but it's not accectable that speech
browser users hear, "Valu--Pound--able."

They'll hear (at least in mine):

[vee] [ey] [el] [yoo] [pound] [able]

 

[jake]

You might try using

Valu£able Skills

The £ is the escaped pound sterling symbol so the above
would display correctly but I'm not sure what a screenreader
might do with it.

The same as if you'd used £

[vee] [ey] [el] [you] [pound] [able]


(in mine)

 

[nice.guy.nige]

While the city slept, Jukka K. Korpela <[email protected]> feverishly
typed:

[...]

Valuable Skills
and when the pointy-haired boss complains, tell him that the company
will be heavily sued for discrimination, if pages are not accessible
to everyone, including intellectually enabled people who are mentally
blocked from doing business with a company using a moronic
misspelling like "Valu£able".

I think I agree with you Jukka. Hell, they can complain all they like 'cause
my contract finishes tomorrow! From the first day I saw that name I thought
"oh dear..." I have a logo I can use on the page with the '£' in it, and
replace all the text versions with normal English! Should keep them happy,
especially if I explain the accessibility side of it. Apart from anything
else, what language would I identify it as?? ;-)

The 'company' is actually the local Further Education college. You'd think
they'd know better, but then that was before marketing types came in I
suppose...

Cheers,
Nige

--
Nigel Moss.

Email address is not valid. (e-mail address removed). Take the dog out!
http://www.nigenet.org.uk | Boycott E$$O!! http://www.stopesso.com
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is very, very busy!

 

[nice.guy.nige]

While the city slept, Disco Octopus <[email protected]> feverishly
typed:

[...]

Well. I am going to have to agree with what /i/ /think/ you are
trying to say.

The OP has given a word "Valu£able" and he/she wants particular U/As
to read/interpret that word in different ways depending on the UA.
ie. they want the word to be "Valu£able" in a web browser such as IE,
but they want the word to be "valuable" in browsers such as speech
browser UAs. You might as well just have some js code in the page
that looks for navigator.name, and do a doc.write depending on the UA.

Not at all. I was just pondering if there was any element to markup 'strange
non-words', so that they can appear as is on the screen (keep marketing
happy), but they wouldn't confuse (for example) a screen reader, in a
similar way to marking up abbreviations or acronyms, etc.

If that is your point rf,

Wasn't it Jukka you were replying to?

then I must agree, you have shown me the
light o wise one. Now, to make the point clear to the OP....

The point is perfectly clear, thank you. As I said, I was just pondering as
this is something I've never come across before, either in work, or in the
several years I have been in
Cheers,
Nige

--
Nigel Moss.

Email address is not valid. (e-mail address removed). Take the dog out!
http://www.nigenet.org.uk | Boycott E$$O!! http://www.stopesso.com
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is very, very busy!