![]() ![]() How emojis appear to a screen readerĪ screen reader translates an image’s meaning via its alt text, and emojis are also ‘read’ through a type of alt text – the Unicode string – which represents each emoji. But for visually impaired or blind users, they frequently have a negative impact on the clarity of your content, social updates and messages. In the case of emojis, you may think they’re adding visual interest and emotion. However, if you’re creating the content in a rich text editor that carries a premium accessibility checker, it’s easy to ensure your image alt text is suitable for screen readers. So, unless the alt text is descriptive of the image, it won’t make the screen reader’s translation easy to understand. In the case of images, screen readers ‘translate’ them by reading aloud the alt text for each image within the context of the digital text. Known as text-to-speech technology, it empowers users to hear content and navigate your content by using the keyboard – giving them the same level of independence, enjoyment and access, as anyone else. When it comes to reading content, blind or visually impaired people, and people with learning disabilities often use assistive technology (like screen readers) to convert your digital text into synthesized speech, or transcribe it into braille. The majority of people with vision impairment and blindness are over the age of 50 years (old age here we all come), however, vision loss affects people of all ages. In the instance of sight impairments, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that at least 2.2 billion people have a near or distance vision impairment, across the world. And when those situations happen, everybody who is using your product (digital or physical), experiences the same or similar limitations as someone with a more permanent impairment. Let’s find out why.Ĭreating accessible content, means being inclusive for all your user’s needs (impaired, disabled or otherwise) and thereby improving everyone’s user experience.ĭon’t be deceived though, accessibility is in no way, shape, or form an edge case – it impacts 100% of your users – because on a daily basis, in certain circumstances, everyone experiences situational and temporary disabilities. Yes it sounds weird, but despite your emoji-filled social posts and messages seeming to add more depth and breadth, those little pictures could be affecting your content – because they’re not digitally accessible to every reader. In amongst all that revelry, are you being co-opted into assuming that the messaging shortcuts you’re using are interpreted (and seen), the way you intend? Or could they be causing confusion? Thanks to emojis, we’ve added back the feelings that had been lost in our increasingly non-verbal conversations, and they’ve literally given a face to our text □īut there’s a catch. They’re the bitesize emotion-carrying pictures that can say so much and are increasingly hard to avoid. They absorb our attention, speed up our lives and lure us into using shortcuts and pictures, over words and faces. Living in a mobile-first, digitally-driven world, it’s easy to get lost in the glory of our devices. ![]()
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