What are descriptive hyperlinks?
Descriptive hyperlinks are weblinks disguised as descriptive text where clicking on the link will take the user.
Each link must have meaningful text describing its purpose without relying on the surrounding text. While it is important to be descriptive, keep it as concise as possible.
Screen readers will announce aloud "link" when it comes across a hyperlink, so there is no need to include the word "link" as part of the meaningful descriptive text.
Many screen readers, including JAWS and VoiceOver, allow users to read the Web page links, as demonstrated in the image below listing links from this page. As the list shows, link text which is meaningful out of context is more usable in a list.
Avoid non-informative link phrases such as the following:
- Click here
- here
- Learn more
- More info
- Read more
- link to [some link destination]
Instead, use more descriptive language and meaning text such as:
- How to add alternative text to images
- Learn how to make your work accessible
- Read more on making Word documents accessible
In Microsoft Applications:
- Highlight the URL and right-click.
- Select “Link” then Insert Link.
- Enter the descriptive text in the "Display text."
In a MAC the display may appear as such when inserting hyperlinks.
Remember that the default color of a hyperlink is blue and is underlined.
