Ambiguous link text with no context Accessibility Checkpoint

Description

Link uses general text like ‘Click Here’ with no surrounding text explaining link purpose.

Help

Screen reader users use text around links to help understand what the link does. If the link text is very general, and there’s no surrounding text, there’s no way to work out what the link does. Either use a descriptive link label (which helps all users) or add an aria-label or aria-describedby to the link (which helps screen reader users).

Applicable standards

• ACT Rules 5effbb
• WCAG 2.0 F63 (Success Criteria: 2.4.4 level A, 2.4.9 level AAA)
• WCAG 2.1 F63 (Success Criteria: 2.4.4 level A, 2.4.9 level AAA)
• WCAG 2.2 F63 (Success Criteria: 2.4.4 level A, 2.4.9 level AAA)
• Section 508 (2017) F63 (Success Criteria: 2.4.4 level A, 2.4.9 level AAA)

Note: Section 508 Refresh (2017) checkpoints are equivalent to WCAG 2.0 level A and level AA checkpoints.

Change history

• 5.38 Jul 2020 Improved detection.
• 5.37 May 2020 Improved detection.
• 5.27 Oct 2017 Improved ambiguous link detection. Changed rule ID from AccWcag2-F63-1 to AccHtmlLinkTextAmbiguousContext.
• 5.24 Dec 2016 Updated to October 2016 version of Techniques for WCAG 2.0.
• 5.5 May 2014 Updated to April 2014 version of Techniques for WCAG 2.0.
• 5.4 Feb 2014 Fixed false positive.
• 5.0 Oct 2012 Don’t fire if preceding heading provides context.
• 3.0 Dec 2008 Added.

This page describes a web site issue detected in HTML documents by SortSite Desktop and OnDemand Suite.

Rule ID: AccHtmlLinkTextAmbiguousContext