Unusual Words

 

A mechanism must be available for identifying definitions of words or phrases used in an unusual or restricted way such as idioms or jargon. Definitions or resources for a definition search must be provided for such words or phrases.

 

 

Abbreviations

 

A mechanism for identifying the expanded form of any abbreviations used on the page must be provided. This mechanism can be displaying the expanded form the first time the abbreviation appears or a dictionary search form.

 

 

Reading Level

 

When a page requires reading ability more advanced than the lower secondary education level, supplemental content (or a version that does not require reading ability of that level) is available to the users.

Text that uses short, common words, and short sentences, are typically easier for users to understand. This type of text requires less advanced reading abilities than text that uses long sentences or complex words.

Proper names can be ignored or removed from text when assessing whether text meets a reading ability requirement or not. This is because names cannot be changed to shorter names, or in doing so by referring to everyone by pronouns, makes sentences harder to read. This would also be the case for titles.

 

 

Pronunciation

 

A mechanism is available for identifying specific pronunciation of words where meaning of the words could be seen as confusing without knowing the pronunciation. When words are read using the wrong pronunciation, it can change the context of what the passage was discussing. In these situations, it is important that pronunciation of these words are provided to the user so that they can understand.

 

 

Language of Page

 

The language of the web page should be identified by the content developers. This provides the users with text and other linguistic content correctly. Users who use screen readers can load the correct pronunciation rules, visual browsers can display the proper character and scripts, and media players can show the correct captions.

If a web page uses several languages, the default should be the one that is used the most.

 

 

Language of Parts

 

The language of each passage or phrase in content can be determined. This ensures that users can correctly present content written in multiple languages. It allows users and assistive technologies to present content according to the rules for that language.

When no language has been specified for a phrase or passage of text, the default language of the web page is used.

Individual words or phrases in one language can become part of another language. For example, “rendezvous” is a French word that has been adopted in English.

This is used commonly in some languages, where a single word becomes part of the language that surrounds it. Since this often occurs, single words should be considered part of the language of the surrounding text, unless it is clear that a change in language is intended.

Words that are viewed as technical terms are not usually translated to all languages, even if that word originates from another language.