Links: accessible practice

A link refers to any section of text that can be clicked on to view other web pages, download documents or access external applications. It’s important that links are added clearly, so students can find them and know what to expect once they select the link.

We asked our Digital Accessibility Ambassadors – UTS students with lived experience of disability to explain descriptive links.

A screen reader is a type of assistive technology that conveys content on the screen in a non-visual way – for example via speech or braille.

Often links are visual distinctive from regular text, e.g. underlined to let people know it’s clickable. However, this might not be apparent to a student using a screen reader. Some screen readers will declare “link” after the link text.

Navigating via links

Students who use screen readers navigate websites using elements on the page ­– this includes links. If a student is trying to find a specific link they would go through all of the links on the page to find the correct one. That’s why it’s important for them to make sense out of context.

Demonstration: Links with NVDA

NVDA is a popular type of screen reader that a student might use on their device. This demonstration will show why it’s important to create links with descriptive link text for student who use this assistive technology.

• Include description of the link in the “link text” field and the link in the “link field. Here’s an example of what it looks like when adding a link in the Canvas Rich Content Editor:

• Ensure the link text makes sense out of context e.g. make your subject site accessible resource collection – let’s you know the link destination without needing to click on it compared to “accessibility” is more vague or “click here” which gives no context.
• Avoid including full URLs in most situations. A screen reader will read out a full URL, and long URLs will mean extra time and effort for screen reader users. It can also be overwhelming for other students if there are multiple links on the page with long URLs.
• If it’s a file, include the file type and size in the link text e.g. read the subject outline [PDF, 12kB].
• Try to be consistent with how you add links to your subject site – including text, location and formatting.

Don’t use phrases like ‘click here’ or ‘read more’ for your links as screen reader users will be unable to discern the content or purpose of the link without clicking it.