Capitalization and Digital Accessibility

Body

Environment

Documents and web pages

Issue

How can I present text strings without spaces, such as email addresses and acronyms, so that screen readers and other assistive technologies can interpret them correctly?

Resolution

Many writing conventions exist, such as camelCase (capitalize the first letter of all words and acronyms in the string except the first, such as "allCatsMustArriveAsap") and PascalCase (capitalize the first letter of all words and acronyms including the first, such as "AllCatsMustArriveAsap"). These appear to have evolved from programming languages and are not always easily applicable in other environments. There is also not a consensus on best practices for accessibility.

Our recommendation is to use NVDA to test various options and see which provides the best result. For example, "SSDOffice" is read as would be expected; if the "o" is lowercased, it sounds more like "ss dofuss." If capitalization is important for a string such as an email prefix to be parsed correctly by technology, provide a note to that effect. 

Additional Information

Need additional information or assistance? Contact the ITS Service Center.

Details

Details

Article ID: 15478
Created
Wed 6/10/26 11:18 AM
Modified
Wed 6/10/26 5:54 PM

Related Services / Offerings

Related Services / Offerings (1)

This Service provides assistance or collaboration with making information technology (websites, documents, media) accessible to work towards meeting the requirements of the EIT Accessibility Standard Practice Guide on campus.