Accessibility Requirement #8
Last Updated: January 12, 2007
Author: Donald F. Evans
Table of Contents
- Priority
- Description
- More Info
- Coding/Best Practices
- Testing/QA
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- W3C Guidelines
Required
Link text MUST make sense when taken out of context. Avoid using text like "click here,", "buy", "more," or "details." Use the headline of a story, or more descriptive or distinct text that conveys where the user will land.
Try to imagine you have all the links in list and you are reading them over the phone to a friend. Would your friend understand what “Click Here” means? How about “buy”. The visual user can associate a Buy button next to a camera as buying the camera. The Screen Reader user cannot.
- Best Practices:
- How Does Jaws Handle Link Text?
- How to make link text distinct by hiding some text off the
screen.
- Using the Alt Attribute to create distinct link from images.
Guidelines:
- In General, try to imagine you can't see the link and imagine what information the link gives you. Is it enough to clearly state where it is taking you?
- Don't use links like "Click Here".
- Make sure your links are unique. A page of "Buy" buttons is not usable. "Buy Kodak Camera Model 7000" is much better.
- When using an image as an anchor, make sure you have a meaningful alt tag.
- When using arrows, use text like "next shopping item" or "previous shopping item" rather then "next" or "prev".
Using the AIS toolbar you can select "List Links" from the "Docs Info" menu.
The toolbar's results. Links like 2, 3, 4 or 5 are not meaningful.
Using Jaws to test for link text. The Insert+F7 Key to bring up a list of links into a separate window. Unnamed is not a very meaningful link text.
Links are indexed by all search engines. It is important they be meaningful and distinct.
- HTML Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
- Link text
- Grouping and bypassing links
- Keyboard access
- Anchors and targets
- CSS Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
- Text instead of images