Emoji Accessibility And Low Vision

The topic of emoji accessibility and visual impairment comes up frequently in social media feeds on digital accessibility. When most people think of emoji accessibility, they think of how emoji are read by a screen reader or how blind people interact with emoji non-visually in different contexts— there isn’t as much of a focus on emoji accessibility and low vision, or how people with visual impairments who still access information visually interact with emoji.

Just like visual impairment itself, emoji accessibility is not just a binary between being able to see emoji perfectly and not being able to see them at all, rather it is a spectrum that accounts for multiple experiences. Here is an overview of emoji accessibility and visual impairment, encompassing blind, low vision, and neurological visual impairment (CVI) accessibility.

What do emoji look like for visually impaired users?

For the purposes of this section, I use the term visually impaired to refer to people who access information visually, whether that is with large print, high contrast displays, magnification, or other tools that focus on visual access. There are many factors that can impact how visually impaired users see emoji, which can include:

Depending on the visual impairment, emoji may appear blurry or distorted, making it challenging to identify individual emoji or confusing similar emoji with each other
Some visually impaired users may identify emoji by color or general shape, instead of zooming in to look at details of images every time. For example, someone might learn to recognize a crying emoji by noticing the blue tears, which helps them distinguish between another face emoji
With large print displays, emoji may overflow onto a different line, which can make it challenging to make sense of ASCII art or contexts where emoji are arranged in a specific way
If there are several emoji in a row, it can be challenging for visually impaired users to tell them apart, especially if they have similar colors
Emoji keyboards have lots of small icons arranged next to each other, and it can be difficult to identify individual icons.
When someone sends a message that has more than five emoji, it can be disorienting to recognize all of the emoji or try to identify single emoji when they appear to blur together.

As someone with double vision and blurry vision not corrected by glasses, emoji often appear to “run into” each other or blend together, making it challenging for me to identify similar-looking emoji. I use color and basic shapes to identify emoji, and often struggle with face emoji, emoji with fingers or hands, and emoji with people.

What do emoji look like with a screen reader or text-to-speech?

Instead of looking at the screen to see emoji, a screen reader or text-to-speech can be used to read the names of emoji out loud.

For example, if I sent a text with a cat emoji to my friend, their screen reader or text-to-speech tool would read my message out loud, including “cake emoji” or “cake” (depending on what settings they have enabled on their screen reader for recognizing emoji).

If I sent a text with five cake emoji to my friend, their screen reader would read “cake cake cake cake cake”, reading each emoji one at a time. My friend would probably stop reading my message if I sent a bunch of cake emoji in a row and not read any text that came after the multiple emoji.

Short answer: emoji are noisy!

What do emoji look like in braille?

A common misconception about braille emoji is that a braille display will display a tactile version of emoji icons, e.g. displaying a picture of a cat if someone sends the cat emoji. In reality, braille displays will display the name of the emoji (along with a symbol/tag indicating that the text is associated with an emoji), or they might show a bunch of distorted characters that are impossible to read/distinguish. Some users will filter out emoji so that they don’t show up on their braille display, making them essentially invisible.

Emoticons written with punctuation (such as the : ) smiley face) will include the braille dots for the corresponding punctuation, unless the user has a custom rule in place to recognize emoticons or a braille transcriber has replaced it with an emoji. For the : ) smiley face, this would be braille dots 2 and 5 for the colon and then for the parenthesis there would be two braille characters corresponding to 5 and 345– which doesn’t look much like a smiley face!

Several designers have created proof-of-concept designs for braille emoji, but these are not widely used or supported by braille displays.

Other factors that can impact emoji accessibility

Being able to access emoji visually or non-visually is just one part of emoji accessibility for visual impairment, and I have noticed other social factors and cultural factors that can impact emoji accessibility and low vision, which can include:

Emoji can have multiple meanings depending on the context, and may not be used in a literal sense. I remember wondering why people would share pictures/captions on social media with completely unrelated emoji, and wonder why people included certain emoji in a post or message.
Emoji are displayed differently across operating systems, and may use different colors, color palettes, line thicknesses, art styles, and facial expressions. For example, the sauropod dinosaur emoji can appear blue on some displays and green on others.
Color emoji printed in black and white may have low contrast or be challenging to differentiate without color
On some displays, emoji may not be supported and may be shown as blank squares or distorted characters that make it challenging to figure out what was supposed to be displayed. Is that blank box a check mark or an x? Nobody knows!
Visually impaired users may be nervous about misidentifying an emoji, which can lead to embarrassment or feeling anxious in conversation/when interacting with others online. They may also not feel comfortable asking someone “hey, what emoji is this?”
Inserting the “wrong” emoji can also lead to embarrassment, so some users with visual impairments may avoid using them entirely

Does this mean that emoji should never be used? Of course not! There are several ways to use emoji for visually impaired users in an inclusive and accessible way.

How do visually impaired people actually use emoji?

While every individual has their own preferences, there are several strategies for using emoji with visual impairment to convey information, including ways to make emoji easier to see and how visually impaired people use emoji with each other. These can include:

Using two-different colored emoji to symbolize thumbs up and thumbs down, instead of having them as the same color.
Instead of scrolling through the emoji keyboard, users might find emoji with copy/paste or using a search tool (see next section)
Some of my friends with low vision find it helpful when people add a text caption for an emoji, e.g. 💛 (yellow heart). This isn’t something that is considered an emoji accessibility best practice for social media since this would create duplicate text for screen reader users, but people may find this easier to read in text conversations
When labeling folders or making lists, some users find it helpful to add a corresponding emoji so that they can use color as a visual aid. For example, I might write a cucumber emoji next to the word cucumber on a grocery list
I personally avoid placing identical emoji directly next to each other, which may be challenging to identify visually. Instead, it’s helpful to add a space between similar emoji so they are easier to see.
When in doubt about what an emoji is, visually impaired users can consider enabling text-to-speech, read aloud, or speak text shortcuts to hear it read out loud.
Adding emoji that represent accessibility and disability. There are emoji for white canes/blindness canes, guide dogs, people walking with canes, and many others. I have a “woman with white cane” emoji added to my screen name on social media.
Sending a single emoji with no other accompanying text will display the emoji in a larger size compared to emoji accompanied by other text.

Some of my friends specifically ask people not to send them emoji in text messages, while others are fine with single emoji being used between words. If someone wants to send multiple emoji in a row, most of my friends ask that they be reserved for the end of a text— so if I wanted to send my friend four eyes emoji, I should add them to the end of my message instead of having them “interrupt” a sentence.

Typing emoji with low vision

Wondering how to type emoji with low vision? This is something I used to struggle with a lot because the emoji keyboard can’t be displayed in large print like a QWERTY or alphanumeric keyboard can. Recommended strategies for typing emoji with low vision include:

Browse the Emojipedia website to view emoji in large print or with large icons, as well as learn the emoji names and what they look like. While browsing the emoji keyboard with a screen reader can be helpful, it can get overwhelming quickly.
Use the search function on the emoji keyboard to filter emoji
Inserting emoji with dictation or speech-to-text. For example, saying “cat emoji” would insert a cat emoji
Use keyboard shortcuts to streamline inserting emoji. For example, text replacement can be used on Apple devices to replace specific text with emoji, or tools like Espanso can be used on the computer to replace text with emoji while typing
Some users with low vision prefer using stickers in messaging applications, which are larger than emoji but may not always be recognized by screen readers.

When it comes to heart emoji, some of my friends have preferred colors that they find easier to see. For example, white hearts can be challenging to see on a light colored background, so some users may prefer another bold or saturated color like red or purple.

Best practices for emoji accessibility

What should sighted users know about emoji accessibility? Here is a list of best practices for emoji accessibility on social media, from someone with low vision:

Avoid using emoji to replace letters or placing emoji in the middle of a word, which can make it challenging to read or “interrupt” how someone reads it.
When adding emoji to usernames, place them at the end of a screen name instead of at the beginning
In general, emoji are considered more accessible than emoticons or ASCII art, as they are encoded with alternative text/alt text that can be recognized by screen readers.
Learn the names of emoji, as these are what is read out loud by screen readers or displayed on braille displays. Evaluate if the emoji names make sense within the context of a social media post.
Don’t use multiple emoji in a row, as these can be challenging to see and can lead to repetitive descriptions for screen reader and braille users— see previous example of “cake cake cake cake cake”
Consider placing emoji at the end of a sentence or post instead of sandwiching them between words or other text. That way, the user does not “tune out” text content interrupted by emoji.
Use no more than three emoji per post or message— use emoji sparingly
Avoid using emoji as bullet points to structure lists since the names of emoji are read out loud or displayed on a braille display— someone might not realize they are looking at a list.

To learn more about emoji accessibility in different contexts, check out the related links below!

What do emoji look like for visually impaired users?

Related links

What do emoji look like with a screen reader or text-to-speech?

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What do emoji look like in braille?

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Other factors that can impact emoji accessibility

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How do visually impaired people actually use emoji?

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Typing emoji with low vision

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Best practices for emoji accessibility

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