6. Clearly identify links
For consideration
Non-descriptive and especially repetitive links are very unhelpful to people using screen readers
When a link on your site has a non-descriptive title or repeats multiple times, users with limited vision who navigate your website won’t understand the function of those links.
In many cases, the links won’t relate to the other content on the page similarly to how sighted people can see, for example, how a title and paragraph are ahead of a link.
Suggested approach
You may choose to use a non-descriptive link or repeat a link in the following instances:
- When you’re trying to drive people to a single piece of content or page with multiple calls-to-action
- If you’re creating a short link after related content, such as saying “Read more” or “Click here.”
Try to be descriptive
In most cases, your best option to meet accessibility objectives is to ensure your links are descriptive.
So you’d say, “Read more about accessibility” or “Our accessibility guide” instead of “Read more.”
However, this isn’t always elegant from a marketing or design point of view. The good news: there is another option.
Label non-descriptive links
With a bit of code support, you can keep those “Read more” links where they make sense by attaching a more detailed (invisible) link description using an Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) tag for links.
What you’ll end up with is a link code that looks something like this: <a href=“https://domain.com/accessibility.html” aria-label=“Read more about accessibility.”>Read more</a>
In this example, the link is https://domain.com/accessibility.html
The text the user will see as the link is: “Read more.”
The link will read “Read more about accessibility” for screen reader users instead of just “Read more.”
Try to limit repetition
Ideally, you wouldn’t have the same link repeatedly in your content because you’re trying to promote it.
A screen reader user would have this link read out as frequently as you include it.
For consideration
From a marketing point of view, this may be very deliberate on a long page, but a screen reader user may hear just the links without all the other content, creating a repetitive and cumbersome list of links.