Web Governance
Link text is meaningful when read out of context
2.4.4 Link Purpose (in context)
This document gives information about the related accessibility checks:
Link text is meaningful when read out of context.
Make sure that your link text is meaningful on its own. Users who read the link out of context must be able to understand the purpose of the link.
For some users, it takes too much time to read through an entire web page. They may, instead, use shortcuts to navigate directly to links on the page. In such situations, the user cannot understand what the link redirects to if it depends on the surrounding text for context.
Common examples of link texts that are not meaningful when read out of context are: “Click here”, “Learn more”, and “Read more”.
Sight-impairments: Who access the site contents with a screen reader or other assistive software where it may be beneficial to navigate by links rather than reading the entire page.
Motion-impairments: Who use keyboard navigation to tab from link to link or who use alternative pointing devices.
Cognitive limitations: Who may become disoriented with confusing links that are out of context.
Bridgit is a blind mother to a five-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy:
“The children’s school posts all news about events and activities on their website. I feel that it takes a long time to find what I want to read because all the links from the overview page to the individual news articles just say, "Read more." I have to click on each news article to understand what it's about.”
This section will give some examples of the issue.
The text on a link is “Read more.” This does not indicate to the user what the link is about or what they will find when they access it.
A good link text, for example, “Read annual report”, clearly tells the user what the link is about and where it points to.
The example below shows a list of links on a page as they are found by a screen reader, which is typically used by people with visual impairments. The list contains multiple links with the text “Learn more”. These links do not indicate to the user what they do or where they point to. The list also includes a “Privacy Policy” link, which clearly communicates its destination to the user.
This section gives instructions on how to review and fix the issue with Web Governance.
Find each link text on the web page. Determine if the link text makes sense when it is read in isolation. A meaningful link text should clearly indicate the content that a user can expect to be directed to when they access the link. You can use the Web Governance platform to review the links you have on your page:
Click Accessibility (icon of a human with arms outstretched) on the menu bar. The Accessibility dashboard opens.
Click Pages with Failing Checks from the menu on the left side of the page.
Click Open Page Details (the page icon) on the same row as a page with failing checks.
On the list of checks, find the check, “Link text is meaningful when read out of context.” (You can use ctrl+F or the Search feature to assist with this.)
Click the Pages button on the right side of the column to view a list of the pages where this issue is found.
Review each link. If you are unfamiliar with HTML, here’s an example:
Web Governance <a href="http://google.com/images">Google Image Search</a><href= <-- whatever comes after this is the link’s destination.
Content Author: for link text issues found within the content.
Front End developer: for link text issues found elsewhere on your website.
2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context)
For information about the Accessibility feature, see the user guide articles:
If it’s an external page, the whole URL will be written out (as in the example above).
If it’s an internal page that starts the same way as your website, the URL will be written out with only the second part. (In the example above, the URL would appear as href=”/images” if it was linked from google.com.)
The text that comes before </a> is the link text that a user will see and click.
If the link text is descriptive (matches the destination): Change the check status to reviewed.
To review the check for one page, click Reviewed.
Review the check for every page where the link appears on your site (recommended). To do this, continue with these steps:
Click Open FastTrack for this HTML Snippet (the highway icon).
Find “Link text is meaningful when read out of context” on the list of checks.
Click Action and select Review on the same row as the check.
Type a justification (optional).
Click OK.
If the link text is NOT descriptive, edit it from your CMS. After you have completed the changes, follow the steps again from Step 6.
If this content did not answer your questions, try searching or contacting our support team for further assistance.
If it’s an external page, the whole URL will be written out (as in the example above).
If it’s an internal page that starts the same way as your website, the URL will be written out with only the second part. (In the example above, the URL would appear as href=”/images” if it was linked from google.com.)
The text that comes before </a> is the link text that a user will see and click.
If the link text is descriptive (matches the destination): Change the check status to reviewed.
To review the check for one page, click Reviewed.
Review the check for every page where the link appears on your site (recommended). To do this, continue with these steps:
Click Open FastTrack for this HTML Snippet (the highway icon).
Find “Link text is meaningful when read out of context” on the list of checks.
Click Action and select Review on the same row as the check.
Type a justification (optional).
Click OK.
If the link text is NOT descriptive, edit it from your CMS. After you have completed the changes, follow the steps again from Step 6.
If this content did not answer your questions, try searching or contacting our support team for further assistance.