Michigan Virtual courses must comply with the following practices related to hyperlinking:
- Hyperlinks should be written using descriptive link text. This means that the purpose of the link can be determined from the link text alone and a user would not need to rely upon additional context to determine the purpose or function of a link. Link text is the text that appears on a hyperlink. For example, in the hyperlink WCAG 2.1 AAA 2.4.9 Link Purpose (Link Only), the link text is highlighted in blue and underlined (i.e., WCAG 2.1 AAA 2.4.9 Link Purpose (Link Only)).
- If the hyperlink takes users to a webpage or document, the name of that webpage or document will likely be sufficiently descriptive. A developer can also choose to write their own descriptive link text instead of using the name of the webpage/document (and in fact, this will be required if the name of the webpage/document is itself not sufficiently descriptive, e.g., “Doc1.pdf”).
- If a link opens in a new window or leads to a specific document type, that should be indicated in the link text.
- The word “link” can be excluded from the link text. A screenreader will already announce to a user that a link is a link, so adding the word link to the link text will create a redundancy (e.g., “Link: link to FERPA”).
- Examples
- Link text like “Click here” or “Read more” is not sufficiently descriptive because a user would not be able to tell the purpose or function of those hyperlinks from the link text alone (i.e., they would not be able to tell why they should click here or where they’ll be directed when they do so).
- Using the URL of the hyperlink as the hyperlink text should also be avoided. This is also the case for citations.
- More information can be found at Understanding SC 2.4.9: Link Purpose (Link Only)
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