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Re: Proper Unicode or html entity for negative sign

for

From: Jonathan Cohn
Date: Mar 15, 2023 7:27PM

Here is a message that was on WEBAIM in 2018, the oldest message I have kept from the list, though now I never deal with math.

—


> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Mohith BP < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] en-dash, dash and minus
> Date: July 30, 2018 at 4:50:49 AM EDT
> To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> Reply-To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
>
> Hi,
>
> Please use HTML math symbols.
> for minus it is one of the following:
> <span> &minus; </span>
> or
> <span> &#8722;</span>
> or
> <span> &#x2212; </span>
>
> Refer the complete HTML math reference below:
> https://www.w3schools.com/charsets/ref_utf_math.asp
>
>
> Thanks & Regards,
> Mohith B. P.
> On 7/27/18, Isabel Holdsworth < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> Yet another niggly accessibility issue I could do with your thoughts on.
>>
>> I'm working on some eAssessment software that allows teachers to
>> upload maths questions and their pupils to answer them online.
>>
>> Some of the teachers are using the en-dash (–) character instead of
>> the minus (−) sign, because it's wider and easier to see. But we feel
>> that en-dash doesn't convey the subtraction operation to screenreader
>> users.
>>
>> Since there's no easy way to enter a minus sign using the keyboard,
>> we're trying to come up with a compromise that makes the content more
>> accessible.
>>
>> I think the dash (-) character is a good alternative, and it's widely
>> available and IMO widely understood to denote subtraction.
>>
>> What do you guys think?
>>
>> We really want to offer the best experience we can to kids sitting
>> tests using our software, so I'd appreciate your thoughts.
>>
>> Thanks as always, Lynn
>> >> >> >> >>
> > > > Best wishes,

Jonathan Cohn



> On Mar 14, 2023, at 1:58 PM, <EMAIL REMOVED> wrote:
>
> I just tried the Unicode math symbol &#8722;
> Jaws speaks the following as "minus 100."
> −100.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of glen walker
> Sent: Tuesday, March 14, 2023 1:07 PM
> To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Proper Unicode or html entity for negative sign
>
> If you have access to a refreshable braille device, test it there too. I had a similar issue but can't remember if it was a negative number or a degree symbol. Whichever one it was, while it visually looked correct, when reading the character with braille it wasn't the right character.
> Unfortunately, I don't recall what we ended up using that read correctly with braille, announced correctly with the screen reader, and visually looked correct. I only remember that I'm glad we had someone that could read braille and pointed out we were using the wrong character.
> > > >
> > > >