Reader View: Stop expanding/spelling out acronyms during Text-to-Speech (TTS)

[BRO1]

Hello,

I would like to suggest an improvement regarding the Text-to-Speech (TTS) feature in Firefox's Reader View.

Currently, the voice reader automatically expands and spells out acronyms. For example, if the text contains "CGT", the voice pronounces: "Confédération Générale du Travail".

While this was probably designed with good intentions to help with accessibility, in practice, it turns out to be a counterproductive feature for several reasons:

• It is redundant: In the vast majority of cases, the user listening to the article is already familiar with the acronyms used by the author.

• It ruins the listening experience: When a text contains many or long acronyms, listening becomes almost unbearable. For example, in a text mentioning "la CFE-CGC et la CGT" multiple times, the voice reads: "la Confédération Française de l'Encadrement, Confédération Générale des Cadres et la Confédération Générale du Travail". This takes about 8 seconds to say every single time, making the Firefox reading experience extremely tedious and frustrating.

I believe that expanding acronyms is a "false good idea" that actually hurts usability. I suggest disabling this automatic expansion so that the reader simply pronounces the acronyms as they are written (or spells them letter-by-letter).

Thank you for considering this improvement!

[Jon]

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