Links
When you follow a link online, the text that you click on to do so is the link’s “label.” The web page address (URL) is the link’s “destination.” Most screen reader users use links to quickly navigate pages. So it's possible that instead of hearing paragraphs of text, a screen reader user may just hear the links listed one after another.
Using descriptive language to define link text is very important so the user understands the link out of context of the surrounding language.
Main considerations
There are several issues that can make links difficult or impossible to understand:
- Avoid simply using full URLs (http://....) for links as a screen reader will read character by character if it can't make out words. It can be very frustrating to have to listen to URLs read aloud, especially over and over again.
- Do not use generic link labels such as “here”, “click here”, "read more", or “website.” These do not make sense out of context, so the user has no clues about the link’s destination.
- Use distinct descriptive text for each link on a webpage that goes to different destinations.
- If hearing the link read out loud, on its own, would not make sense, it needs to be more descriptive.
Examples
Imagine the following items are being read to you as screen reader software would, where the screen reader announces the element name before reading the link. Which example would be easier for you to understand out of context?
- link https://dsu.edu/accessibility/training/links.html
A screen reader user would hear: "link h t t p colon slash slash d s u dot e d u slash accessibility slash training slash links dot h t m l" - link click here
- link Learn more about descriptive links