Sharing links that are accessible for everyone

 

We all share links with others in documents, emails, courses and on websites. By following a few guidelines, you can make sure the links you share are inclusive, accessible and usable. 

Link meaningful text

Use meaningful text for links. The linked text should describe where the link will go and should make sense if it is read out of context from the rest of the text on the page. People using screen readers can touch a button and hear a list of all the links on a page.  Avoid using "click here", "read more", "info", "link to [insert link here]". Example:

• Accessible: To get started, use our Guide to creating educational videos.
• Not accessible: Click here to get started.

Avoid using URLs for the link text

URLs are difficult to read and it is unclear what you are linking to. Screen readers will read a URL letter by letter (h-t-t-p-s-colon-slash-slash-docs-dot...). 

• Accessible: Quality criteria for creating educational video
• Not accessible: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T8bMeKQ66dDEcA9zuRHVqFLDzj EJMio2sv6fRlJRqIY/edit#heading=h.7jvnk6e5ycua 

Write out full email addresses

Use the full email address as the link rather than embedding it in other link text. 

• Accessible: Request equipment at extloan@umn.edu
• Not accessible: Request equipment

Creating accessible links is one of the 7 Core Skills from the University's Office for Digital Accessibility. For a deeper-dive, visit Links and Hypertext (WebAIM).

Article by Karen Matthes, Extension Learning Technologies, klm@umn.edu