Upper Case Character Test
This is a test to determine how screen readers handle words or phrases in all upper case. The first five items are menu items on a university home page. As for the remaining items, if English-speaking humans prounounce them, Items 6 - 8 are typically spelled out. Items 9 and 10 are typically pronounced as words, and the final two items people don't agree on.
This test was created based on a question I was asked about the first five items - essentially, does upper case pose an accessibility problem? Everything else is mostly here to satisfy my curiosity.
Note: This isn't a test of the <abbr> and <acronym> elements - I have a separate test page for that.
The List with Upper Case Letters
- ABOUT
- ACADEMICS
- STUDENT SERVICES
- STUDENT LIFE
- COMMUNITY
- ADA
- NVDA
- WHO
- SMIL
- SAMI
- NCAM
- SQL
The List with Normal Capitalization, Stylized as Upper Case Using CSS (the acronyms are capitalized)
- About
- Academics
- Student Services
- Student Life
- Community
- ADA
- NVDA
- WHO
- SMIL
- SAMI
- NCAM
- SQL
The List with Normal Capitalization, Unaltered
- About
- Academics
- Student Services
- Student Life
- Community
- ADA
- NVDA
- WHO
- SMIL
- SAMI
- NCAM
- SQL
Results
- The most interesting result is: VoiceOver always spells out ACADEMICS if it appears visually in all caps. This is even true in the second list, when it's not in all caps in the HTML. It only reads Academics as a word in the third list. This isn't true of any of the other first five items - VoiceOver reads them as words even if they appear in all caps. So what's unique about ACADEMICS? I have no idea.
- Both JAWS 12 and NVDA 2011.2rc1 read each of the first five items as words, even if they all appear in upper case.
- Otherwise, screen readers vary as to which items they read as words. The only items on which all three screen readers agree is SAMI, which they all mispronounce (like SWAMI without the W); SQL, which they all spell out (conclusion: it's not pronounced "sequel"; and NVDA.