Emojis: Understanding the issues
Understand what makes emojis inaccessible and how it impacts everyone
Time estimate: 7 to 10 mins
This training helps:
Anyone who creates and manages content including social media, websites, emails, and digital marketing media.
- Content writers
- Marketers
- Social media managers
- Project managers
- … and more
What are emojis?
Emojis are digital icons or images available on all operating systems. The name comes from Japanese, which translates to “picture character.” [Source: NY Post] People use them to represent emotions, words, and symbols in digital content.
Emojis can be universal. They are pictures that represent people, objects, symbols, and feelings. While two people may not speak the same language, they can use emojis to communicate.
Not all emoji use is accessible
Emojis are essential for modern digital communication, but they can create barriers for people with disabilities and cause misunderstandings for everyone.
Some emoji usage enhances communication for all, while other approaches can frustrate users and create accessibility barriers.
Emojis are subjective like art
Imagine you’re at an art gallery with friends, standing in front of a portrait. The subject’s expression is ambiguous. One person sees a slight smile, another reads it as neutral, and someone else sees sadness behind the eyes. Everyone is looking at the same face, but each person interprets it differently.
Just like that portrait, an emoji can be ambiguous and can be interpreted in multiple ways.
People can interpret emojis in multiple ways
You might send 🙏 thinking you are expressing gratitude or saying “please,” but your recipient might interpret it as a high-five or prayer. Or consider the skull emoji, 💀, – to some it means “I’m dying of laughter,” while others might see it as genuinely morbid or threatening. Even something as simple as 🙂 can be interpreted as friendly by some and passive-aggressive by others, especially across different generations or cultures.
Just like that abstract painting, the same emoji can trigger completely different meanings in different people’s minds. Without shared context or clear communication, your intended message can be lost in translation. It could lead to confusion or accidentally offending someone.
Factors that influence interpretation
- Language background and culture
- Geographic location
- Age and generational differences
- Disability and how information gets processed
- Personal experiences and context
Emojis look different across platforms
To complicate things further, emojis do not always look the same across devices, apps, or operating systems. Each platform, Apple, Android, Microsoft, X, designs its own version of every emoji, and the differences can affect how people interpret them.
Let’s go back to the “folded hands” emoji 🙏 as an example. On most platforms, it looks like two hands pressed together in prayer or a gesture of saying “please” or “thank you.” But on Microsoft’s platform, the same emoji appears animated as a high five, showing two hands clapping together. These different visual interpretations can lead to mixed messages depending on what device someone is using.
The image below compares the “folded hands” emoji across several platforms. Notice how each version looks slightly different, which can cause confusion if users do not see or interpret the emoji in the same way.
Apple
Android
Twitter/X
Microsoft
Not only do emojis look different across platforms, but every operating system may update its emoji library at different times, creating even more variation in how emojis appear and function.
Additionally, emoji visibility can vary based on user settings like dark mode versus light mode. Most platforms automatically adapt for display differences or they may show a blank square.
While emojis can enhance digital communication, they can also create significant barriers for people using assistive technology. Understanding these accessibility challenges is crucial for creating inclusive content that works for everyone.
How do emojis affect assistive technology users?
Screen readers don’t announce when they are reading an emoji. They simply read the emoji’s description as part of the text. This can lead to confusion if the emoji replaces a word or interrupts the sentence flow.
For people who use screen readers and other assistive technology, emojis create unique communication challenges that go beyond simple interpretation differences.
When emojis replace words
Just like how people can interpret the same emoji differently when they see it, screen reader users can receive mixed messages when they hear it.
Imagine getting a text from a friend that says “🤙.” Your screen reader announces it as “call me,” so you do. But when they pick up, they’re confused. Why are you calling?
What your friend actually meant was the “shaka” sign, meaning “hang loose” or “have a good time.” This actually happened to Pete Gustin, a blind surfer, which demonstrates how emoji miscommunication can create real confusion for assistive technology users.
Even some people with cognitive disabilities and no disabilities may not be able to interpret the intention.
Problems with excessive and repetitive emoji use
Emojis between every word
Some users put an emoji between every word, which interrupts the flow completely.
The screen reader will say “clapping hands” between each word. Even some people with cognitive disabilities may not be able to interpret the sentence.
Imagine 👏 an 👏 emoji 👏 between 👏 every 👏 single 👏 word.
Play the audio clip below for an example of what a screen reader says when emojis are used between every word.
“Imagine clapping hands and clapping hands emoji clapping hands between clapping hands every clapping hands single clapping hands word.”
Repeated emoji strings
Another common problem is repeating the same emoji multiple times, such as the following:
🙏 🙏 🙏 🙏
Someone using a screen reader will hear “folded hands, folded hands, folded hands, folded hands.” They’re unlikely to associate this repetition with the intended meaning of emphasis for “thank you” or “praying.”
🙏🙏🙏🙏
The example emoji is referred to as “folded hands.”
Play the audio clip below for an example of what a screen reader says when emojis are used repetitively before and after text.
“Folded hands, folded hands, folded hands, folded hands. Here is what happens when you have repeated emojis before and after text, folded hands, folded hands, folded hands, folded hands.”
Emojis as bullet points and usernames
This same repetition problem happens when emojis are used as bullet points. For example, using ✅ before each list item means screen readers say “check mark button” before every item, making a simple list harder to follow.
Username emojis create similar noise issues. When someone puts emojis around their name like 🌟Jasmine✨, screen readers announce “glowing star Jasmine sparkles” every time that person posts or comments. This adds unnecessary noise. It also makes it harder to locate or search for users by name.
How common are emojis?
92%
According to USA Today, the world shares more than 10 billion emojis every day. That’s 7 million per minute! Additionally, Unicode reports that 92% of the online world uses emojis.
People who are blind or have low vision also use and receive emojis regularly. A study titled “Emoji Accessibility for Visually Impaired People” found that most participants use an emoji at least once a day and encounter emojis at least once per day.
How do emojis impact you or someone you know?
Please reflect on which scenarios apply to you or someone you know:
- I/they don’t understand what an emoji represents
- I/they use screen readers, and hearing descriptors for many emojis makes it hard to understand the context of the content.
- I/they can’t read the content because it’s overloaded with emojis.
- I/they can’t identify the emoji because there’s little to no color contrast between the emoji and its background.
- I/they can’t identify emojis because they’re too small to identify.
- I/they use different operating systems where emojis don’t look the same, which can make it harder to understand their meaning.
- I/they can’t understand some emojis because they don’t show correctly.
- I/they don’t mind a lot of emojis.
Takeaways
Emojis can enhance digital communication, but they can also create significant barriers and misunderstandings for people with and without disabilities. Understanding these challenges is the first step toward more inclusive communication.
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