[thelist] How do screen readers read phone numbers?

Mark Groen evolt at markgroen.com
Sun Nov 19 17:13:14 CST 2006


On Sun, 2006-11-19 at 18:41 -0400, M. Seyon wrote:
> Evening all,
> 
> Been doing some Sunday evening ruminating, prompted by some recent 
> discussions on here.
> 
> Having never used one myself, I was wondering how do screen readers output 
> phone numbers?
> 
> Given 1-800-123-4567
> 
> Do they say "One hyphen eight zero zero hyphen one two three..."?
> 
> Or "One hyphen eight hundred hyphen one hundred and twenty three hyphen 
> four thousand five hundred and sixty seven"?

Depends if "Smart Word Reading" is turned on and if you are using JAWS.
If it is, it's read in a block as in Word and the "hyphen" is not
pronounced - the Smart Word Reading feature is application dependent.
So, if Microsoft Word normally reads the entire text unit as one word or
number, then JAWS will do the same.

For example, in the sentence, "She is my sister-in-law," if the cursor
is placed anywhere on the word "sister," JAWS would say "sister."
However, in JAWS 8.0 with Smart Word Reading, JAWS will say the entire
compound word, "sister-in-law."

Likewise, in the sentence, "The appointment was at 2:00 P.M.," JAWS
would say "colon" if the cursor was placed between the digit 2 and the
colon. In JAWS 8.0 with Smart Word Reading, JAWS will say the entire
text unit as two o'clock. 

If the cursor is placed between the dash and the 444 in the telephone
number 1-800-444-4443, previous JAWS versions would say, "444." In JAWS
8.0 with Smart Word Reading, JAWS reads the entire telephone number as,
"1-800-444-4443." pausing where there is a hyphen.

http://www.freedomscientific.com/fs_downloads/jaws.asp

-- 
cheers,

        Mark




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