Reply To: Alphabetic Reference in Glossary
No, it doesn't feel so wrong. It LOOKS so wrong. That's because you and I can see it. But your reader can't. There is a similar question a couple of posts down called Index Alpha Divisions that raises the same issue. Here is my response to that:
Print readers see a blank line immediately and read on, but braille readers can only tell by journeying across at last half of the print page, whether that line is indeed blank or bearing text. In the case of that very short alphabetical division, when centered, it also requires a journey across half the page before the reader knows it's there. The elimination of that blank line may not be so pleasing to look at for the print reader, but I suspect it improves the reading experience in braille. The braille reader has to look at only one line past the running head, catch that division letter, and immediately see text close in, if not actually at, the left margin on the very next line.
Of course here, the next text will be in cell 5, pretty close in, especially since the reader will now be aware that these are cell-5 entries and be expecting to see them. And as you have rightly noted, there is no exception for headings. No blank line before and after alpha division letters except for the very first one. That way, the reader spends as little time as possible to get across from a letter to the next entry.
--Joanna