Should I use currency symbols or acronyms?

The currency symbol ($, £, etc.) may help avoid questions about what the ISO standard acronym means. Also, if using the symbol, then assistive technology won't try to announce the acronyms as words or speak the individual letters. Regardless of which is used, to ensure meaning is properly conveyed, it would be best to also implement one of the following methods -

• Spell out the currency, such as "US Dollars", either in the product listing or in a tooltip
• Use the abbr attribute to define what the symbol or acronym means
• If the symbol is inserted using an image, provide the meaning in alt text

For help identifying meaningful symbols, like currency, that do not have alt text, checkout the Accessible Web Helper browser extension for Chrome.