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Text speak - a request

stranger

As someone who is sight impaired, I really struggle to read, even more so if it's in text speak. As far as I'm aware, there is no character limit on this forum. (or if there is, it's big)

Can I please ask that people don't write in text speak or consecutive capitals? The latter gives the impression you're shouting and like text speak, is difficult to read.

  • NAS5794 said:

    I go out of my way to make sure the posts I write are easy to read. If I can't be bothered to read what I've written, it needs rewriting.

    I wonder if some people do this too. I used to know someone who is sight impaired who'd write in text speak. She couldn't understand at all what problem I have with text speak - even when I said it's difficult to read. (it can take some time to work out what each word means)

  • I've had people on other forums ask me what certain abbreviations mean. I've got no problem explaining them either.

    I've had to start skipping certain peoples posts because I know I won't be able to read them.

  • Something I've seen work on other forums, stranger, is that whenever you see an abbreviation you ask them to expand on it.

    After a while it trains people into typing them out in full in the first place.

    Personally I've stopped reading some of the sub-forums because of the work I have to do to read just one post - I just go in, mark all as read, and move on.

  • There is at least one poster still doing this and generally making their posts really inaccessible for me to read. Thanks for that. Very much appreciated, not.

  • Yeah, I'd say AS and ASD are fine. And actually I can remember PDD-NOS is 'Persistent Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified', and that that basically means 'on the autistic spectrum but not in any one of the named dignostic areas', and I think it sort of sits between 'Autistic' and Asperger's Syndrome. Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked now...

    What's important here is to remember context - we're familiar with AS and ASD, because we're on the spectrum - but things like DS, DD, DH, and DW, are only familiar to anyone with those things and whom frequent 'family' forum sites.

    To me a DS is a Nintendo held-held games console, and a DD is a Direct Debit.

    Oh, and I don't why you have to prefix Husband, Son, Daughter, or Wife with Dear in the first place!

    And really, when you get used to it, typing words out in full doesn't actually take any longer than using abbreviations.

  • If you write AS (or ASD) I do know what you mean. PDD-NOS is one I can never remember. Although, I know it's on the spectrum somewhere.

  • Ahh but what about DH? That's far quicker than Dear Husband lol.

    i do tend to do the 'text speak' for certain things - but will be more mindful! Though I hope that its considereacceptable for the ASD, AS etc 

  • Agreed.

    I don't have any kind of sight impairment, and can usually decipher text speak fairly well, but even I find all the abbreviations, text speek, and consecutive capitals a bit of a headache.

    Particularly in the Parents and Carers forum, for some reason - I often start to read a post and it's so full of abbreviations in the first few lines that I don't get past that.

    'DS' is one that always get to me - I believe it means 'darling son' (or 'dearest son', or somesuch), but 'son' is only 1 character longer, and doesn't require holding down the shift-key (or pressing caps-lock twice), so is actually easier to type!