Symbols on Pages

This article will discuss how some everyday symbols can be better utilized to make your content more accessible to your residents.

Best Practices       

• Ampersands (&)
  • Use the ampersand (&) in category titles, page titles, subheads, and table header rows
  • Write out “and” in all paragraph text unless it is an official company name (example: AT&T)
• Asterisk (*)
  • If an asterisk is being used to indicate a footnote, reformat the information so the asterisk is not the only way the footnote is communicated 
• At (@)
  • The @ symbol is read out by screen readers but should be written out in text for consistency  

WCAG Compliant Symbols

According to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), the symbols that can be used in text are listed in the following table. All other symbols must be written out. 

Resources

• WebAIM Designing for Screen Reader Compatibility
• Deque Punctuation and Typography Symbols