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Re: Link labels and APA citations

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From: Jonathan Avila
Date: Oct 20, 2014 7:49AM

> Can we assume that someone reading a research paper with a screen reader will understand from the context of being in the reference section that APA citations are in this format and be ok with it? Is there a way to meet both APA and best practices.

I think there are several ways that this information could be WCAG conformant and remain as it appears in APA format.

Some thoughts include:
1. Make the work title a link and appear as text but appear underlined on focus (has usability implications because it doesn't appear interactive unless focused or hovered). Don't make the URL a link.
2. Use aria-labelledby on the URL to provide an accessible name containing the title rather than URL (has possible implications for speech users)
3. Claim that the URL itself accurately describes the purpose of the link. This could be used in many situations where the domain or page name describes the work. Some URLs would be numbers or letters that have no meaning and in these situations this solution wouldn't work.

Displaying the URL has benefits -- but I agree this is something that people need to come together on to discuss and it's not just one side's responsibility.

Jonathan

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Ed Eckenstein
Sent: Friday, October 17, 2014 2:14 PM
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: [WebAIM] Link labels and APA citations

This question concerns links in a research paper. Accessibility best practices are to give links meaningful labels and not just use the URL as a label. However APA format dictates citing the URL as in:

Burgstahler, S. (n.d.). /Universal Design of Instruction (UDI):
Definition, Principles, Guidelines, and Examples/. Retrieved from The University of Washington:
http://www.washington.edu/doit/Brochures/Academics/instruction.html

Can we assume that someone reading a research paper with a screen reader will understand from the context of being in the reference section that APA citations are in this format and be ok with it? Is there a way to meet both APA and best practices.

Thanks,

Ed