Links are a foundational element to a user’s digital experience. Learning to create accessible link text can improve your emails, websites, course pages, and documents.
Making links accessible means making them perceivable (visually distinct from surrounding text) and making the purpose or destination of the link understandable. The display text for hyperlinks should be clear and provide an accurate description of the link destination.
Impact
Sighted users scan pages for links, and seeing meaningful link text helps the user quickly understand where the link will take them (opposed to a link that says “click here”) without having to read any additional information for context. When the link displays the full URL or generic text like “click here,” the user must put forth greater effort to understand the purpose of the link.
Screen reader users can access a list of all links on a page and it will also announce each link as the user navigates the content. Nondescript text links such as “click here” or “read more” are not helpful as the user has no idea where the link will take them. Furthermore, if the entire URL is listed, the screen reader may read every letter, making the link difficult to decipher.
What to do
- Make sure that links look like links, meaning underlined text.
- Embed links within other text. For example, write a sentence and highlight the text that you want to make a link, and insert the link.
- Windows shortcut: Control and K
- MAC shortcut: Command and K
- In some cases, you can highlight the text, right-click, and choose “link”
- For email addresses, type the full email address and then link the email address.
Good Example
To learn more about digital accessibility visit Ohio State’s Digital Accessibility Services’ website.
Bad Example
To learn more about digital accessibility click here.
Good Example
Do you have a question about digital accessibility? Email Digital Accessibility Services at das@osu.edu.
Bad Example
Do you have a question about digital accessibility? Email us.
Things to avoid
- Don’t display the full URL unless the document is primarily intended to be printed. In that situation, use a URL shortener such as go.osu.edu.
- Don’t use text such as “click here,” “learn more,” “info,” etc.
- Don’t hide phone numbers and email addresses behind link text such as “call” or “email” – use the phone number or email address as the link text.