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Re: [WebAIM Forum] Hyperlink Accessibility vs. Security

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From: Carly Gerard
Date: Sep 28, 2017 2:38PM

No worries Angela, I can try to explain better--although that's another good point to consider, the fact that URLs may be malicious in themselves. We know that hyperlinks need to have meaningful text to be accessible to AT, such as in the following example:

<a href="https://domain.com/link-to-pdf ">Open Example PDF</a>

In this case, a user would see the hyperlink as "Open Example PDF," and wouldn't see the actual URL. According to the email I received from our tech services, however, it sounds like they've heard to make the URL visible (and not use meaningful hyperlink text) for security purposes. Brief searches online have led me to phishing awareness articles that have also suggested this practice.


This leads me to wonder how to consider both accessibility and security in this matter, and how I should start that discussion.


I hope my explanation makes sense, and that maybe there's a reasonable solution.

From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > on behalf of Angela French < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2017 12:11:09 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] [WebAIM Forum] Hyperlink Accessibility vs. Security

Perhaps I am misunderstanding you, but you can still have a bad link behind what looks like a good one . For example:

<a href="www.malicioussite.com">www.goodsite.com</a<http://www.malicioussite.com">www.goodsite.com</a>>