Screen Readers: HTML Character Entities & Numeric Character References

Last updated: April 6, 2008

Jump navigation:

• Read the notes for this test
• Go to the tests
• Go to the results

Notes

April 6, 2008: Jason Kiss has published results of his own testing of character references with more recent versions of JAWS (8.0) and Window-Eyes (6.1); highly recommended reading: JAWS, Window-Eyes and Character References | Accessible Culture

Testing how various screen readers read out a selection of HTML character entity references and numeric character references following a discussion on Accessify Forum:

• testing most common "named" character entity references
• testing their equivalent numeric character references
• testing mathematical formulae (see discussion of MathML, Mathspeak and Fire Vox support)
• initially test with JAWS, Home Page Reader and Window-Eyes
• further tests with JAWS and Window-Eyes should be made with adjusted verbosity settings for punctuation
• further tests may be made in Fangs, FireVox, Opera with Voice

Important: These tests are made with screen readers in their default settings. Most screen readers will speak quite a bit of punctuation by default. However, the tests performed here with Window-Eyes 4.5 resulted in a very minimal number of characters being spoken. Newer versions of Window-Eyes may behave differently, but some versions seem to require users to change the punctuation settings to enable general punctuation and mathematical symbols to be spoken (many thanks to Priti on Accessify Forum for that information).

Jump navigation:

• Back to the notes for this test
• Tests follow…
• Go to the results

Tests

Jump to quick test

Test 1: Multiplication Sign

Expected output: "times (by)" or "multiplied by", Suspected output: "times" or "multiply". Results for Test 1

Character entity reference: ×

Numeric character reference: ×

Test 2: Division Sign

Expected output: "divided by", Suspected output: "divide". Results for Test 2

Character entity reference: ÷

Numeric character reference: ÷

Test 3: Degree Sign

Expected output: "degrees", Suspected output: "degrees". Results for Test 3

Character entity reference: °

Numeric character reference: °

Test 4: Plus-Minus/Plus-or-Minus Sign

Expected output: "plus or minus", Suspected output: "plus minus". Results for Test 4

Character entity reference: ±

Numeric character reference: ±

Test 5: Squared/Superscript Two

Expected output: "squared" (most cases), Suspected output: "squared". Results for Test 5

Character entity reference: ²

Numeric character reference: ²

Test 6: Cubed/Superscript Three

Expected output: "cubed" (most cases), Suspected output: "cubed". Results for Test 6

Character entity reference: ³

Numeric character reference: ³

Test 7: Fraction One Quarter

Expected output: "one quarter", Suspected output: "one quarter". Results for Test 7

Character entity reference: ¼

Numeric character reference: ¼

Test 8: Fraction One Half

Expected output: "one half", Suspected output: "one half". Results for Test 8

Character entity reference: ½

Numeric character reference: ½

Test 9: Fraction Three Quarters

Expected output: "three quarters", Suspected output: "three quarters". Results for Test 9

Character entity reference: ¾

Numeric character reference: ¾

Test 10: Fraction Slash

Expected output: [unknown], Suspected output: "slash". Results for Test 10

Character entity reference: ⁄

Numeric character reference: ⁄

Test 11: Maths phrase 1

Expected output: "greater than" and "minus", Suspected output: "greater" and "minus". Results for Test 11

Character entity reference: a − b > c

Numeric character reference: a − b > c

Test 12: Maths phrase 1 (variation with dash)

Expected output: "greater than" and "minus", Suspected output: "greater" and "minus". Results for Test 12

Character entity reference: a - b > c

Numeric character reference: a - b > c

Test 13: Maths phrase 2

Expected output: "squared", Suspected output: "squared". Results for Test 13

Character entity reference: E = mc²

Numeric character reference: E = mc²

Quick Test

Skip quick test and go to results

The test characters below are links for easy tabbing through the test. The links do not lead anywhere.

• Named: ×
• Numeric: ×
• Named: ÷
• Numeric: ÷
• Named: °
• Numeric: °
• Named: ±
• Numeric: ±
• Named: ²
• Numeric: ²
• Named: ³
• Numeric: ³
• Named: ¼
• Numeric: ¼
• Named: ½
• Numeric: ½
• Named: ¾
• Numeric: ¾
• Named: ⁄
• Numeric: ⁄
• Named: a − b > c
• Numeric: a − b > c
• Named: a - b > c
• Numeric: a - b > c
• Named: E = mc²
• Numeric: E = mc²

Quick Test ends.

Jump navigation:

• Back to the notes for this test
• Back to the top of the tests
• Results follow…

Results

Jump navigation:

• Back to the notes for this test
• Back to the top of the tests
• Back to the top of the results