Remove title attributes: the "URL" abbreviation for Universal Resource Locator

[afercia]

See related #24766 and all the following tickets about title attributes.

There are two occurrences in the WordPress codebase for "URL" that use a title attribute to expand the abbreviation, in options-permalink.php and options-writing.php.

​Discussed a bit this case in the accessibility channel on Slack and probably there's no need to use title attributes in the first place, since "URL" has essentially entered language as a self-contained concept.

[afercia]

The proposed patch simply removes the title attributes. Keeps the <abbr> tags for semantics and to help assistive technologies announce them correctly.

[afercia]

To clarify, this is not to say that abbreviations should never be expanded. It is still recommended to provide an expansion, preferably in plain text, but in this case "URL" probably doesn't need to be expanded. As reference, see for example:
​https://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2010/11/using-the-html-title-attribute/

Expansion of an abbreviation: The title on the abbr element is well supported by screen reader software, but its use is still problematic, as other user groups cannot access the expansion. It is recommended that the expanded form of an abbreviation is provided in plain text when it is first used in a document, and/or a glossary of terms that provides the expanded form is provided. This is not to suggest that that the expansion should not be provided using the title attribute, only that due to its limitations, an expansion in plain text should also be provided.

[afercia]

Looking back at this, I'd be in favor of removing the <abbr> tags too. As far as I see even ​the official URL specification doesn't use <abbr>. Worth noting that in options-permalink.php there are already other occurrences of "URL" and "URLs" which not marked as abbreviations.

[afercia]

In 36142:

Accessibility: Don't mark up "URL" as an abbreviation.

"URL" has essentially entered language as a self-contained concept, there's
no more need to expand it with an <abbr> element and a title attribute.

Fixes #35174.

[samuelsidler]

Fwiw, I think we should keep the <abbr> for URL as well as for any abbreviations we use in the admin.

That said, it's "Uniform Resource Locator" not "Universal Resource Locator." I wonder how long that bug has been there. :)

[afercia]

Replying to samuelsidler:

Fwiw, I think we should keep the <abbr> for URL as well as for any abbreviations we use in the admin.

Open to suggestions :) Just noting there are several (really, a lot) of occurrences in the admin where "URL" and "URLs" are not marked up as abbreviations. The ones removed in this ticket where the only ones wrapped in a <abbr> I was able to find.