Screen readers do not read parentheses

[kellijohnson-NOAA]

When writing a sentence, make sure the sentence is comprehendible even if you remove the parentheses because screen readers omit them.

For example, I recently found the following caption in the Executive Summary of the Pacific Hake assessment document

❌bad example

Estimates of recent recruitment (millions of age-0 fish) and recruitment deviations,
where deviations below (above) zero indicate recruitment below (above) that estimated
from the stock-recruit relationship.

a little bit better example

What does "below above" mean 🤷 ? Perhaps it should be changed to

Estimates of recent recruitment (millions of age-0 fish) and recruitment deviations,
where deviations below or above zero indicate recruitment below or above that estimated
from the stock-recruit relationship, respectively.

Respectively is added to the end of the sentence to emphasis “in the order given” and should only be used if your sentence would be unclear without it.

🏆 best example

Maybe we should even clarify what the words in the first set of parentheses mean?

Estimates of recent recruitment in terms of millions of age-0 fish and recruitment deviations.
Recruitment deviations below or above zero indicate recruitment below or above that estimated
from the stock-recruit relationship, respectively.