sjw: * The correct syntax of an acronym tag is Treasury Board Secretariat.
David: For HTML, the correct typical syntax would be <acronym title="Treasury Board Secretariat">TBS</acronym> for the acronym element, though I recommend you replace acronym with abbr. For PDF, you would use an /E structure instead.

sjw: *All acronyms can be tagged but the title element is always used in the tag when present.
David: Almost true. Using the ABBR element to make an abbreviation clearer is one way of doing so, in which case the TITLE attribute should be present. However, there are some situations where an ABBR (or ACRONYM) isn’t technically possible (for instance, within an alt attribute when providing a text description of an image) in which case it is best to simply spell out the term. Also, when an acronym is first used, it is a common technique to spell out the term in parentheses immediately following the acronym) for all to “see”: in such cases also using an ABBR or ACRONYM would by dysfunctionally redundant (as, for instance, someone using a screen reader would then wrongly hear the expanded form twice).

sjw: *All acronyms should be tagged to force the screen readers to read them as separate letters instead of a word but the title element should only be used in the first instance. For example: ISO.
David: Untagged, the screen reader is going to read an all caps word as separate letters. And I think that all instances should be coded identically (see my next response…)

sjw: *Once the first instance of the acronym has been coded with the correct syntax as in the first bullet, it is not necessary to wrap the other instances of the acronym in a tag.
David: Although there is a debate around whether to TITLE every instance or just the first instance, I’m in the every-instance camp, for many reasons:
- there are cases where the same abbreviation will appear with two different meanings on the same page, for example “Dr. Bombay, 123 Riverside Dr., Ottawa”.
- not every assistive technology is going to elegantly apply the one instruction to all instances of an identical abbreviation, and we are always seeking device independence
- down the road a developer or algorithm may cut and paste a portion of your page into another page, and thus lose the rule
- it is more difficult to do quality assurance if not all instances are handled the same way

sjw: *If the tag is presented without the title element most browsers present an indicator that there is attached info. However, for the sighted user this is incorrect but this does allow the unsighted user to get the acronym delivered correctly. Which way should have precedence in your opinion?
David: I recommend that you always include the title attribute. Also, don’t forget the value of potentially also including a LANG attribute whenever the expanded version is not in the language of the page.

sjw: *Acronym tags are not mandatory in WCAG 2.0.
David: Nothing is mandatory in WCAG 2.0 . Rather, for the example of Treasury Board of Canada, their site is governed by the Canadian government’s new Standard On Web Accessibility, which makes compliance mandatory for all WCAG 2.0 success criteria of Level A and Level AA (with some exceptions). Because the WCAG 2.0 success criterion for expanding on abbreviations (3.1.4) is designated Level AAA, including ABBR (or ACRONYM) is not mandatory under the Standard On Web Accessibility.

sjw: *Incorrect use of the acronym tag is a fail under Success Criteria 1.3.1 – Technique F43.
David: Yes, that would be a Level A failure. I think what we’re getting at here is someone wrongly using ABBR or ACRONYM to force the visual dotted underline effect in many browsers. Of course, more generally, there are other success criteria which would also be failed with wonton miscoding of ABBR (or any element for that matter).

All around, ABBR elements are a blessing, and one can even control them further through CSS. And, although designated Level AAA, the folks in marketing for sites seeking A or AA compliance will also appreciate the potential control that the use of ABBR can give to how any abbreviated brand “sounds” online.

Final tip: don’t forget that you can also use ABBR in the opposite way in table header rows, providing a more terse alternative heading that will have the benefit of reducing the read-out-loud time of phrases that will be read repeatedly by a screen reader.

My question relates to the use of acronym tags, however, I realize that this tag is being deprecated in HTML5. Regardless, the use of the tag whether it be acronym or abbr remains the same. As you know the federal government has its own language in acronyms and often page content can contain not just many instances of a particular acronym but also may have many different acronyms present as well. Understanding the correct implementation of this tag will save hours of rework in the future. Please correct any wrong statements and elaborate on the misunderstood statements below.

* The correct syntax of an acronym tag is Treasury Board Secretariat.

*All acronyms can be tagged but the title element is always used in the tag when present.

*All acronyms should be tagged to force the screen readers to read them as separate letters instead of a word but the title element should only be used in the first instance. For example: ISO.

*Once the first instance of the acronym has been coded with the correct syntax as in the first bullet, it is not necessary to wrap the other instances of the acronym in a tag.

*If the tag is presented without the title element most browsers present an indicator that there is attached info. However, for the sighted user this is incorrect but this does allow the unsighted user to get the acronym delivered correctly. Which way should have precedence in your opinion?

*Acronym tags are not mandatory in WCAG 2.0.

*Incorrect use of the acronym tag is a fail under Success Criteria 1.3.1 – Technique F43.