Fancy Text and Accessibility
Fancy text is hard or impossible to read for people who use a screen reader. A screen reader is software that reads the text on a screen aloud, and it does not treat a fancy letter as a letter.
This guide shows what a screen reader does with fancy text, who else is affected, what accessibility guides advise, and how to keep a post readable for everyone if you still want some decoration.
What does a screen reader do with fancy text?
A screen reader either skips fancy characters or reads each one by its official Unicode name. Scope, a disability charity in the United Kingdom, describes both results for the screen readers JAWS and VoiceOver.
| What is written | What can be heard |
|---|---|
| sale today, in normal letters | "sale today" |
| The same words in a fancy style | Nothing at all, or a long name for every single letter |
Scope gives an example of such a name: a styled letter t was read as "mathematical sans-serif script t". A word of five letters becomes five of these names, and the listener has to guess the word from them.
Scope sums it up: the characters may be skipped entirely, or the user hears something that has nothing to do with the message.
Why can a screen reader not read fancy letters?
A fancy letter is not the normal letter in another font. It is a different Unicode character, and most fancy letters were added to Unicode as symbols for mathematics.
- The screen reader sees symbols. For the software, a bold fancy H is a mathematical symbol, so it announces a symbol.
- Real bold is different. Bold made with the formatting of an app keeps the normal letters, and a screen reader reads the word as usual.
- Looks do not count. A screen reader works with the characters in the text, not with what they look like.
The guide on Unicode text styles explains where these characters come from.
Who else is affected by fancy text?
| Who or what | What goes wrong |
|---|---|
| People who use a screen reader | The text is skipped or read letter by letter |
| People on older devices | Characters without a glyph show as empty boxes |
| People who search | A search for the normal word often does not find the fancy one |
| People who translate | A translation tool may not recognise the fancy letters as words |
| Voice assistants | Software that reads messages aloud can have the same problem as a screen reader |
So accessibility is the strongest reason for care, but not the only one. Text in normal letters reaches more people in every one of these cases.
What accessibility guides say
| Source | Advice |
|---|---|
| Scope (UK disability charity) | When using Unicode characters, ask yourself whether they are really needed |
| West Virginia University, web standards | Do not use Unicode characters on social media; stick to common characters to reach more people |
The university guide is the stricter of the two. It calls these characters, as seen in profile names and posts, completely inaccessible.
The same guide gives two more rules for posts. Capitalize each word in a hashtag, as in #BlackHistoryMonth, so that assistive technology reads the words one by one. And use emoji sparingly, at the end of a message, because a screen reader reads the name of every emoji aloud.
How to use fancy text with care
- Keep the message in normal letters. Everything a reader needs, such as what, when, where and how much, stays plain.
- Decorate only what can be lost. If the fancy part is skipped, the post should still make sense.
- Keep it short. One or two fancy words, not a sentence.
- Put it at the end. A listener then hears the message first.
- Do not use it for your name. A profile name in fancy letters cannot be read aloud and is hard to find by search.
- Use real formatting where the app has it. Real bold keeps the normal letters.
WhatsApp is an example of the last point. Its Help Center lists symbols for real formatting: an asterisk on both sides of a text makes it bold, and an underscore on both sides makes it italic. The letters stay normal letters.
How to check your own post
Phones have a screen reader built in: VoiceOver on an iPhone and TalkBack on Android. Turn it on, open your post and listen. A minute of listening tells you more than any rule.
Our fancy text generator shows 24 styles for decoration. The page itself says what this guide says: use fancy text for decoration, and keep important information in normal letters.
Frequently asked questions
- Can screen readers read fancy text?
- Mostly not. They skip the characters or read each one by its Unicode name, such as "mathematical sans-serif script t".
- Is bold fancy text the same as real bold?
- No. Real bold is formatting on normal letters and is read normally. Fancy bold uses different characters that a screen reader treats as symbols.
- Should I use fancy text in my profile name?
- It is better not to. A name in fancy letters cannot be read aloud by a screen reader and is harder to find by search.
- Is fancy text bad for search?
- It can be. The fancy letters are different characters, so a search for the normal word often does not match them.
- How can I make a post stand out in an accessible way?
- Use the real formatting of the app, short sentences, line breaks and one or two emojis at the end.