Breadcrumb dividers (semantics and accessibility)

I'm working on a site redesign/rebuild for the AIGA Austin chapter and I 
was thinking about what symbol would be best for breadcrumb dividers: 
visually, semantically, and for a logical aural experience. (AIGA is a 
graphic design professional organization, but I still want the site to 
be accessible to the blind.)

Typically, you see breadcrumb navigation such as:
   Home > About > Contact us

Though using the 'greater than' symbol is not my favorite choice, it 
does have adequate semantic meaning and visual style. Anyway, here are 
some other trials. Let me know your thoughts.

Semantically, using one of these would be nice.
   ∋ (contains a member)
   ⊃ (superset of)

Visually, I'm leaning toward one of these.
   … (ellipsis)
   » (right angle quote)
   › (single right angle quote)
   → (right arrow)
   ⇒ (right double arrow)

Here's the full test list.
<http://www.cookiecrook.com/sandbox/breadcrumbtest.htm>

Does anyone have comments/preferences regarding the accessibility, 
semantics, aesthetics, and practicality of these? My screen reader tests 
don't speak any of the symbols. Is that a user setting or are those 
characters not valid as accessible dividers?

Thanks for your time,
James Craig

-- 
http://www.cookiecrook.com/

Received on Friday, 14 November 2003 18:55:19 UTC