How can encoding issues in HTML affect the display of special characters like "ä"?

Encoding issues in HTML can affect the display of special characters like "ä" if the character encoding of the document is not set correctly. To solve this issue, ensure that the character encoding of the HTML document is set to UTF-8, which supports a wide range of special characters including "ä".

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Special Characters Display</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>This is a special character: ä</p>
</body>
</html>