MNteractive.com

We all love to use various characters as bullets or separators for our links. Common ones are |, > and » (the latter being read as ‘right double angle bracket’). Unfortunately, for those using screen readers, these can be a bit cumbersome to sit through. Standards Schmandards has taken the time to list out how JAWS reads each of these characters and put the information, along with an MP3 so you can actually hear it, into in a handy chart.

The article goes on to suggest that the vertical bar is typically the best option, simply because it is common and those with screen readers are used to it. Personally, I’ve been using more inline lists with the visual divider being a background image, eliminating the need for an extra character in the markup (though you still have JAWS prefacing each link with a verbal ‘bullet’).