Symbols

When it comes to adding symbols to course content, there are many available in the Special Characters menu in the Simple Editor. Figure 6 shows where to open this menu, and Figure 7 shows the menu when it is open.

Symbols can also be added by manually adding code in Source view. A number of code options are available for most symbols including the named, decimal, and hex entity versions. No matter which version of the code you use for each symbol, the result will be exactly the same.

For accessibility purposes, it is important to note that some screen readers and other assistive technologies cannot read certain symbols. Kurzweil simply says, "Question mark," for many symbols, while NVDA ignores some altogether, including various arrow symbols and others that are commonly used for math equations. Because of this, it is best to use MathML when you have large amounts of math content rather than using HTML symbols.

Tables 5–8 show some of the symbols found in the Simple Editor, their code equivalents, and how they interact with screen readers. Table 5 specifically shows the various arrow symbols. Note that the leftwards arrow and leftwards double arrow do not appear in the symbols menu and can only be added by code in Source view.

Arrow Symbols

Table 5. Arrow Symbols

Name of symbol	Symbol	Named entity code	Decimal entity code	Hex entity code	Read by a screen reader?
Rightwards arrow	→	→	→	→	Yes
Leftwards arrow	←	←	←	←	Yes
Rightwards double arrow	⇒	⇒	⇒	⇒	Read by some screen readers, not NVDA
Leftwards double arrow	⇐	⇐	⇐	⇐	Read by some screen readers, not NVDA
Left right double arrow	⇔	⇔	⇔	⇔	Read by some screen readers, not NVDA

Currency Symbols

Table 6 includes all of the currency symbols available in the Simple Editor. Other currency symbols can be added by looking up the code and adding it in Source view.

Table 6. Currency Symbols

Name of symbol	Symbol	Named entity code	Decimal entity code	Hex entity code	Read by a screen reader?
Cent sign	¢	¢	¢	¢	Yes
Currency sign	¤	¤	¤	¤	No; reads as "symbol"
Euro sign	€	€	€	€	Yes
Pound sign	£	£	£	£	Yes
Yen sign	¥	¥	¥	¥	Yes

 

Other Symbols

Table 8 includes a collection of other symbols available in the Special Characters menu, most of which are compatible with screen readers.

Table 7. Other Symbols

Name of symbol	Symbol	Named entity code	Decimal entity code	Hex entity code	Read by a screen reader?
Acute accent	´	´	´	´	Yes
Black diamond suit	♦	♦	♦	♦	Read by some screen readers, not NVDA
Black right-pointing pointer	►	-	►	►	No
Broken bar	¦	¦	¦	¦	Read by some screen readers, not NVDA
Cedilla	¸	ç	̧	̧	Yes
Copyright sign	©	©	©	©	Yes
Degree sign	°	°	°	°	Yes
Diaeresis	¨	¨	¨	¨	Yes
Feminine ordinal indicator	ª	ª	ª	ª	Not correctly; reads as "superscript a"
Masculine ordinal indicator	º	º	º	º	Not correctly; reads as "degrees"
Inverted exclamation mark	¡	¡	¡	¡	Yes
Inverted question mark	¿	¿	¿	¿	Yes
Left-pointing double angle quotation mark	«	«	«	«	Reads as "left double angle bracket"
Right-pointing double angle quotation mark	»	»	»	»	Reads as "right double angle bracket"
Macron	¯	¯	¯	¯	Yes
Micro sign	µ	µ	µ	µ	Reads as "mu"
Middle dot	·	·	·	·	Reads as "dot"
Not sign	¬	¬	¬	¬	Not correctly; reads as "optional hyphen"
Pilcrow sign	¶	¶	¶	¶	Reads as "paragraph"
Registered sign	®	®	®	®	Yes
Section sign	§	§	§	§	Yes
Trademark sign	™	™	™	™	Yes
Underscore	_	_	_	_	Yes, each is read as "underscore," so do not use this to indicate a blank space in a document or quiz question.

More information about mathematical symbols can be found in the Math lesson.

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