Checkpoint 1.12 - Core
Appropriate HTML character entities are used for special characters
WCAG 1.0 Priority 2
WCAG Guideline 3. Use markup and style sheets and do so properly.
HTML provides a method of entering characters into an HTML page where the character cannot be expressed in the document's character encoding or that cannot easily be entered on a keyboard, for example a copyright symbol [ © ], trademark symbol [ ™] or some mathematical symbols like multiplication [ × ] or division [ ÷ ]. The codes for these characters are called 'character entities'.
Requirement
All special characters must be displayed using character entities.
Checking Tool
The W3C HTML Validator is able to identify any special characters that have not been represented by character entities.
Information Source
The original source of this information is located on the W3C web site (www.w3.org/TR/html4/sgml/entities.html)