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D4D Accessibility Guide

Milestone Overview: Contextual Links

Links are Contextual

  • Contextual links help users make informed decisions about what they click on and what pages or applications they are opening. 
  • Screen reader users may select to hear a list of all the links on a page is useful is scanning content

Accessibility Best Practices

Based just on the text of your link would a user know where the link will take them?

  • The display text for a link should let the user know where the link will take them. (All links in this guide are contextual, for example.)
  • The text should be informative enough that a user would still know where they link will take them was even if there were no context around it. 

Writing Links

  • Make it descriptive, but try to be concise. A full paragraph of text as a link is a lot to listen, and may be too much info.
  • If you're forcing the link to open in a new window include (opens in a new window) at the end of the link text
    • Example: Sign up for a library workshop (opens in a new window)
  • If the destination of the link is another application, like a PDF, or Google Docs include that at the end of the link text
    • Example: Designing for Digital conference promotional material (Google Docs)

Good example: To learn more about how to format links within LibGuides, review the Springshare hyperlink documentation.

Avoid

  • Using "click here," "read this," or "info", especially if you end up with multiple links with the same text but going to different locations.
  • Pasting the full URL into the guide

LibGuides Best Practice: Create Reusable Link Assets

Use the “Link” option instead of just making a hyperlink in the regular text. The Link feature will create a reusable asset. Be sure to include the following:

  • Description
  • Select “show description under item”
  • Select the open lock icon for open access materials

LibGuide Help Center Resources:

Examples

Good Examples

Bad Examples

Additional Resources

NYU Resources