Links Best Practices

The article will explain how links can be made compliant to help increase accessibility for users.

Link Purpose (Directional)

Replace directional link text (for example, click here or to the left) with text indicating where the link will direct the user.

Directional Link Examples

• Good Example: Municipal Websites Central Help Center
• Bad Example: For the Municipal Websites Central Help Center, click here.

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Link Purpose (In Context)

The purpose of each link should be determined from the link text alone or from the link text together with its programmatically determined link context, except where the purpose of the link would be ambiguous to users, in general, to be in compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Level A.

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Link Purpose (Link Only)

A mechanism should be available to allow the purpose of each link to be identified from the link text alone, except where the purpose of the link would be ambiguous to users in general to follow Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Level AAA compliance.

Links that are not in sentences should also be named intuitively.

Link Purpose Examples

• Good Example: Learn more about Municipal Website design.
• Bad Example: For more information about local government web design, visit Municipal Websites That Foster Civic Engagement.

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Email Links

Ensure emails and links are masked.

• Example: janedoe@civicplus.com should be replaced with "Email Jane Doe."

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Resources

• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Guideline 2.4.4: Link Purpose (In Context)
• WCAG Guideline 2.4.9: Link Purpose (Link Only)
• Create Link Text
• Best Practice: Linking Documents
• Link Destination: New or Same Window

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