Writing links the right way
Links are an easy way to help users navigate through content on a website, in a document, or to signpost your readers to additional relevant sources of information.
They work best when written in a descriptive way.
Why do they need to be descriptive?
People who use screen readers might read the content of the page and then bring up a menu of the links separately to tab through and visit later.
This menu will only show the list of link titles and could be hard to identify out of context from the main body of the text.
How to do it
Do not used repeated link titles such as 'click here' or 'find out more'
If you named all your links 'click here' or 'find out more' that is all people will see in their screen reader links list.
Links therefore need to be given a clear and accurate title so they can be easily identified and it is clear where the link goes to.
Do not use the full web address
A long http web address link like this:
www.worcestershire.gov.uk/info/20794/sculpt_for_accessibility/2229/sculpt_for_accessibility/5
Would read out on a screen reader menu as:
www dot worcestershire dot gov dot uk forward slash info forward slash 2 0 7 9 4 forward slash sculpt underscore for underscore accessibility forward slash 2 2 2 9 forward slash sculpt underscore for underscore accessibility forward slash 5
If you had a long list of links that all read out in this way it would be very unhelpful.
The best way to write it is how you would say it
When written as ordinary text a screen reader would read the link as it is titled 'Sculpt for Accessibility'
SCULPT by Helen Wilson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Based on work at Worcestershire County Council.