As long as we use the following pattern for markup, we should be good accessibility-wise. The aria-hidden attribute hides the icon glyph from screen readers.

<style>
  .icon-star:before { content: "★ "; }
</style>

<span><span class="icon-star" aria-hidden="true"></span>Favorite</span>

Code from http://filamentgroup.com/lab/bulletproof_icon_fonts.html

best, max
@awesomephant