Using Special Characters

Special characters can be problematic for screen readers accessing the UI.

Don't Use

Don't use special characters in fields, check boxes or other UI elements, including (but not limited to) the following characters:

  • Ampersands (&)
  • Slashes (/)
  • Quotation marks ("")
Do
  • San Francisco and other cities
  • Edit/Delete (in a button or CTA)
Don’t
  • San Francisco & other cities
  • Choose only 1 primary action for the button: Edit, or Delete

Use Only in Certain Circumstances

You can use the tilde (~) for custom labels or brackets ([ ]) for variables (tokenized items) when you’re writing validation messages.

Tilda (~)

Do
  • Select a remit-from ~sponsor~ that isn't already in use for at least 1 other ~sponsor~.

Brackets ([ ])

Do
  • Use a table for the selected element in this function: [variable].

Can't Find What You Need?

Check out our FAQ section which may help you find the information you're looking for.

FAQ Section