When Emojis Become Noise: Guide for Accessible Use in Course Content
Why emojis and icons might not work for everyone, and how to fix it. Digging into how screen readers announce them to learn when to hide them entirely.
A tendency I started noticing lately is a wider usage of emojis or icons in contexts where just recently they were not common at all. My feeling is that at least part of the reason is that a lot of AI tools, being text-based, try to break-up the text and make it more visually appealing. I’m not saying that emojis are a clear marker of an AI-generated text (after all, the m-dash has that honorable title). Rather, they’ve become seen as helpful signposts. While in the past emojis were mostly seen as a marker of less formal communication, making their way from text messages to social media, their inclusion in corporate communication and educational materials is more recent. I’ve seen newsletters, internal memos and course announcements suddenly peppered with 📊 and ✅ symbols.
