Why Jaws does not read the title of an HTML abbreviation instead of only reading the abbreviation itself?
This good question finds its answer in the default configuration of Jaws…

The semantic of the <abbr> HTML tag

W3C HTML specification defines ABBR tag as

ABBR:
Indicates an abbreviated form (e.g., WWW, HTTP, URI, Mass., etc.).

Example:

1.5 <abbr title="Liter">l.</abbr>

This example will render (move your mouse over the string l.) as: 1.5 l.

How Jaws can correctly read <abbr> title?

By default, Jaws does not read the title of the abbr tag but only the abbreviation itself. I think it is a nonsense because this option should be turned on by default.

Activating this option is quite simple. Just follow the steps below:

1. Open Jaws
2. Open the Configuration Manager in the Utilities menu
3. Choose HTML Options in the Set Options menu
4. Check the Expand Abbreviations box
5. Et voilà!