How to Format Accessible Links

Using hyperlinks in emails, electronic documents, webpages, and course pages

How people with disabilities interact with links

People using screen readers

Screen readers have several features that allow users to navigate a web page or electronic document. In addition to reading the full page, users can also prompt the screen reader to read a list of the links on a given page. In this case, the screen reader will only read the hyperlinked text and not the surrounding paragraph text. It is important that link formatting follows best practices so that users will have meaningful content and full navigation of linked content. 

People using speech recognition software

People can use speech recognition software to trigger actions like clicking on hyperlink in an email or webpage. To do so, the user would give a command that includes speaking the text of the link they would like to follow. It is important that formatting of links follows best practices to allow for ease of access and use. 

People using keyboard controls

Keyboard-only users do not use a mouse to click links or navigate a page. The keyboard tab button will allow them to navigate through a page’s links, buttons, and form fields if the page is set-up accessibly. It is important that links are distinguishable from the rest of the body text and hyperlinked properly so that keyboard users have full navigation of a page’s links. 

People with colorblindness

Colorblind users may not be able to perceive color cues alone, which can make it hard to identify differences that are being communicated with color alone. It is important to add underlines or other non-color indicators to help colorblind users differentiate links from surrounding text.

Best practices for formatting accessible links

Link Text

It is very important for link text to make sense without the surrounding sentences or content. Link text should be concise and descriptive, conveying the purpose of the link. Link text should also be unique from other link text on the page and easy to speak out loud. 

Consider these guidelines:

• Avoid link text like “click here,” “more information,” “read more,” etc. Non-descriptive link text can be confusing when read out of context from the rest of the content on the page and can cause issues identifying what the link is for. 
• Do not duplicate link text. Each link on the page should have unique descriptive text that differentiates one link from another.
• Do not use the URL as link text. A screen reader will read and announce each character in the URL. Similarly, a person using speech recognition will have to read each character in the URL out loud. Example of a screen reader reading poorly-formatted links [YouTube video]
• Keep link text short and descriptive. Avoid using large blocks of text or complex sentences as link text. 
• If the hyperlink downloads a file indicate that in the link text by including the file type and size in brackets or parentheses. Example: Formatting Accessible Links Handout [PDF, 2.4 MB] (note: this example is not an actual link)
• If the hyperlink opens in a new tab, indicate that in the link text by using brackets or parentheses. Example: How to format accessible links (opens in new tab) (note: this example is not an actual link)

Link design

A common way to indicate links is by giving them a different color than surrounding text (usually body text is black, and links are blue). However, color differences alone are not sufficient for accessibility and inclusive design. 

Consider these guidelines:

• Pages should have a non-color way of conveying links that appear alongside or within blocks of text
• The easiest non-color indicator is to underline the link text (many applications automatically format this when using hyperlinks) 

Additional Information 

• Usability & Web Accessibility: Links [web page] – Yale University
• Mastering Web Accessibility: Generic Links [YouTube video]
• Accessible U: Links [web page] – University of Minnesota  
• Best Practices for Accessible Links [webpage] – California State University, Northridge Universal Design Center

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