Web Access Centre

Links - Web Access Centre

Summary: Link text is key when navigating a site using a screen reader.

• Rationale
• Techniques
• Testing techniques
• Website Accessibility Initiative compliance
• Other pages about navigation

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Rationale

The golden rule is that a user should click on a link because that is where they want to go, not to find out where it goes.

Screen readers and braille output is often set to read the navigation separately from the content of the page, which means that people can tab through links without reading the text preceding or following it. In addition, some screen readers provide a facility where they will isolate links in a separate window, so that they can be searched and sorted, to save time.

Techniques

• Descriptive link text clearly stating the content of the page it is linking to should be used. Generic phrases such as "more information", "click here" and "more" should never be used. Ideally, the heading or page title of the page that is being linked to should be the link text.
  
  
• Make links short and to the point. Non-essential text such as "link to", or "Click on this link to", if used at all, should be left outside the link itself, as screen reader's are programmed to provide this information and including it within the link text causes unnecessary repetition.
  
  
• Visually obvious link text should be used. Users will be on the lookout for blue text that is underlined when their mouse is hovered over it. If you decide to change colour formatting for links, make sure that the underline still appears on mouse hover.
  
  
• Make text unique for each link on the page. Identical links should lead to identical pages. Similarly, once you've decided on the perfect phrase to use as link text, use the same words, if possible, when the link appears more than once on the same page; as some people find it confusing to follow different text links, only to find themselves returned to a page they've already read.
  
  
• Resort to images if space and layout constrains the number of words that could be used. Consider using a graphic with unique and appropriate ALT text, rather than a repeated text link word or phrase.

An example of this might be where a series of help pages is made available to aid users in filling out an online form. A text link saying "Help" might be placed close to each form field, but the relationship between each field and its help link would not be obvious to screen reader users. If enough space isn't available to describe each help link in full, it would be better to provide icons representing "help", and giving each of these an ALT attribute that makes it clear, which form field it offers assistance with.

• The TITLE attribute can be used to give additional, non-essential information about a link. Essential information should not be put in the TITLE attribute, as many screen readers don't read titles aloud. Neither should the attribute simply repeat the link text, as those screen readers that do recognise TITLE attributes, will read both the link text and the title.
  
  
• Email links should give addresses written in full. This allows users who have different types of email clients to copy and paste the address into an email. For example, web mail clients like Hotmail will not automatically open a new message window when the email link is followed, the user needs to be able to copy and paste the email address into the Hotmail web form.

Testing techniques

Verify that links are clear, unique and make sense out of context.

• Automated testing - test the entire site is a great way of quickly finding pages with identical link text to different destinations. There are a number of automated testing tools, which are ideal for these maintenance checks. Remember though, that they cannot decide on how relevant the link text is.
  
  
• Browser testing - Perform visual checks by simply loading the page into a browser and reading what the link text says. If it isn't clear which text forms the links, or the destination of the link isn't obvious from its text, consider ways of improving it.
  
  
• Screen reader testing - Using JAWS press Insert + F7. This will list links in the page. These can then be sorted alphabetically so you can check for repeated link text.

Website Accessibility Initiative compliance

• 13.1 Clearly identify the target of each link. Priority 2
  
  
• 13.4 Use navigation mechanisms in a consistent manner. Priority 2

For more information on techniques visit the Web Accessibility Initiative techniques page.

Other pages about navigation

• Links
• Help pages
• Hidden navigation and tab index
• Access keys
• Navigation
• New windows
• Page titles
• Sitemaps

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For Web Access Centre updates email webaccess@rnib.org.uk

Content author: webaccess@rnib.org.uk

Last updated: 20/11/2008 11:13