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Link purpose (WCAG)

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From: Gijs Veyfeyken
Date: Jul 22, 2013 8:20AM

Hi,

I'm well aware one should always use links that are meaningful without context.
But according to WCAG level A, it's allowed in meaningful context, such as the preceding heading.

WCAG Success Criterion 2.4.4 (Link Purpose (In Context)) states:
"The purpose of each link can be determined from the link text alone or from the link text together with its programmatically determined link context"
http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-WCAG20-20081211/#navigation-mechanisms-refs

Understanding SC 2.4.4. specifies "programmatically determined link context":
"the user should be able to identify the purpose of the link without moving focus from the link.
In other words, they can arrive on a link and find out more about it without losing their place.This can be achieved by putting the description of the link in the same sentence, paragraph, list item, the heading immediately preceding the link, or table cell as the link, or in the table header cell for a link in a data table, because these are directly associated with the link itself."
http://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/navigation-mechanisms-refs.html

"the heading immediately preceding the link" can be considered as context.

However, it's not possible to read the heading immediately preceding the link with a screenreader without moving the focus, by my knowledge.

Technique H80 (Identifying the purpose of a link using link text combined with the preceding heading element) states:
"The command to take advantage of this technique in JAWS is "JAWS KEY + T"."
http://www.w3.org/TR/2012/NOTE-WCAG20-TECHS-20120103/H80

Jaws Key + reads the title of the page <title>, not the first heading <h> above the focus.
Am I missing something or is this a mistake in WCAG?

Kind regards,

Gijs

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Gijs Veyfeyken
AnySurfer - towards an accessible internet
http://www.anysurfer.be/en
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