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The use of symbols in text messages is one reason to include them in Unicode, but not the only one. Another is accessibility, particularly for blind people. The
by mwcampbell 7y ago
The use of symbols in text messages is one reason to include them in Unicode, but not the only one. Another is accessibility, particularly for blind people. The more commonly used symbols are in Unicode, the less we have to remind website authors to include alt text, or that the symbols in their custom icon font pose an accessibility problem. Also, co-opting an existing symbol, such as the degrees symbol (which I've observed some websites do for external links), is confusing when using a screen reader.
- jolmg 7y agoWouldn't a screen-reader recognize a link even without the symbol? I can see the problem of the screen-reader telling the user that there's some garbage image at the end of the link, but the image really is garbage in that case, since I imagine the screen-reader would make it obvious that there's a link there.
- mwcampbell 7y agoAbsolutely. But if a web author quite reasonably adds a symbol for the benefit of the sighted majority, using an unlabeled image, an icon font, or coopting an existing symbol (e.g. degrees), that leads to extra clutter or confusion for blind users. If the symbol is in Unicode, we can have a solution that works well for everyone.
- Izkata 7y agoThis symbol is for marking external links, distinct from internal links.
- mwcampbell 7y agoRight. And I've come across websites where the alt text for their external-link image is something fairly verbose like "external link opens in new window". Now, imagine if instead, we had a standard symbol, and screen readers could map it to short sound effect that users would come to recognize.