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From: Liko, Todd
Date: Sep 8, 2014 9:18AM

Hello all.

I am looking for others interpretation of Success Criterion 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context). I had a lengthy discussion with content owners this morning.

Here is the scenario. We have a page with multiple <h2> headings. Under each heading there are links. The issue is under some of the heading there are links using the same link text. For example:

Publications


· Transport Canada

· Fisheries and Ocean

Act and Regulation


· Transport Canada

· Fisheries and Ocean

Success Criterion 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) says:

In some situations, authors may want to provide part of the description of the link in logically related text that provides the context for the link. In this case 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.

My concern is how does someone using assistive technologies differentiate between both links when viewing only a list of links or tabbing through the page. The links on their own are not descriptive and link to different pages.

One proposition is to add invisible text at the end of each link so that screen readers will read out and identify each link.

Any thoughts on this?

_______
Todd Liko
Communications Advisor | Conseiller en communications
Web Services | Services Web
Communications and Marketing | Communications et Marketing
427 Avenue Laurier Avenue West (AEAD), Ottawa ON K1A 0N5
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Government of Canada | Gouvernement du Canada