So, as we all know, text in all caps is always at least a mild accessibility issue

[conuly]

It's simply less readable for everybody, and especially for people who have special difficulty in distinguishing between very similar letter shapes.

But I've also been told that it's a big problem for people who rely on screenreaders, which I've dutifully told other people. Googling would seem to confirm this but - is that really true? I mean, it seems strange to me, and even if it was true that doesn't mean it's still true...?

(On a related note, I've found "Please don't do this, it's an accessibility issue" gets worse responses than "This is an accessibility issue, please don't do it". Can somebody explain this? I do not understand this. Why is this? Why are people like this? Why are people so weird? Why?)

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Comments

[crystalpyramid]

Do the screen readers assume that all-caps text is acronyms and read it out one letter at a time?

[conuly]

If it's accurate that this is how they work then I think that's the justification, but... well, all sources I find when I look it up are from years ago, so.

[8hyenas]

I had the same response (more positive towards second phrasing) and I think the reason why is

1) Demand, explanation

versus

2) Explanation, demand (I even wanted to type request instead of demand here bc the explanation softens it.)

[conuly]

Okay, well, you and apparently everybody else are totally backwards, but I guess I'll just have to live with it. *harrumph*

[greenwoodside]

IfI were on my laptop at the moment, I'd test with NVDA (popular free screen reader).

I have heard that all caps are an accessibility issue, but for the same reasons as you (readability, thinking especially of dyslexic people): all caps typically get rid of different letter heights so they become less distinct.

[conuly]

Please do test it and report back - I've been told that screenreaders often (but maybe not always?) default to reading text in all caps letter by letter, but for all I know this information is woefully out of date. I need more contemporary data.

[greenwoodside]

Have tested various examples with NVDA. It didn't have a problem with all caps, and did a very good job at distinguishing between acronymns and full words. (e.g. it read PDF as three distinct letters, but VERY IMPORTANT as two words).

Someone else did some tests and also didn't find the reported problem occurring.

However, Stanford's IT department accessibility page also reports it as an issue.

My guess is that some of the lesser used screen readers may have issues with all caps, and possibly the older iterations of the dominant ones.

Perhaps also there are edge issues with acroymns that could be words but aren't normally pronounced as words. I can't think of an example off the top of my head at the moment though. Something like ALA maybe. (American Library Association + Roman military unit).

[adrian_turtle]

There was a thing people were doing to be emphatic and/or cutesy, with capital letters and asterisks. Instead of word (lowercase) or WORD (uppercase), they would do W*O*R*D (obnoxious case.) Or perhaps I just find it personally galling. In places with emoticons, I sometimes even saw the clapping emoji between letters, and in case somebody is using a screen reader I am not even trying to use that style for "Miss Lucy had a baby." I haven't seen it recently, though. Maybe it just became unfashionable, replaced by teh next big thing.

I wonder if the other ways to emphasize text are difficult to read. I find uppercase is no more challenging than italic, when it's just a few words. Underlining is great where line spacing is adequate, but if I can't control line spacing it confuses my eye. It's probably great with a screen reader, though.

[chanter1944]

Unless a person is specifically reading letter by letter, screenreaders won't generally tell them if something is in all caps. THIS SOUNDS THE SAME as this does, for example. Details can get missed.

[topaz_eyes]

On a related note, I've found "Please don't do this, it's an accessibility issue" gets worse responses than "This is an accessibility issue, please don't do it". Can somebody explain this?

I agree with 8hyenas that (explanation/demand) works better than (demand/explanation). It's not backwards, it's psychology. Most people don't want to believe they're in the wrong about something. That's why people tend to respond more positively to explanation/demand. People are more inclined to cooperate when they know the reason before being asked to change their behaviour, rather than after. The explanation softens the blow of being told they're wrong, compared to being told you're wrong first without any context.

So yeah, the difference is subtle but the order of the request actually does matter. Sometimes you must make the demand first (eg in an emergency) but usually people can figure out why pretty quickly in that case.

[wenchpixie]

Okay, so, I only scope for accessibility testing, and interpret results, rather that actually getting in about things, but from that work I have documentation that confirms that there are indeed a number of screen readers in relatively common use (statistically significant within EMEA at least) that have a nightmare with all caps - either spelling things out, or worse interpreting it as "Capital L, Capital E, Capital T" etc.. Some are better and say "Capitalised WORD, Capitalised OTHER, Capitalised WORD" which is also a pain in the arse but less so.

There's also an issue with Braille tactile adaptive interfaces, but I don't know enough about how that manifests to comment further on it.

[conuly]

Hm. Well, I’d definitely rather err on the side of caution then.