WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Text That Looks Like A Link

for

From: Patrick H. Lauke
Date: Mar 16, 2023 3:46AM

On 16/03/2023 08:50, Verena Lenes wrote:
> Hi Jim,
>
> if there is text in the app that is underlined and is a link and there is also
> text that is underlined that is not a link, then I fail this under 3.2.4
> Consistent Identification.

The SC title is perhaps misleading - it's not concerned with *visual*
consistency, but rather consistency in the accessible name primarily.
See
https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/consistent-identification.html

This issue also arguably doesn't fail 1.3.1 Info and Relationships, as
it's kind of the opposite problem of what that SC tries to address (in
simple terms, 1.3.1 wants to make sure that meaning conveyed visually is
also present in a text or programmatic way for those who can't perceive
the visual aspect. here, it's the opposite, as we're wanting to say "as
this isn't a link, it shouldn't be given this particular confusing
visual styling that makes it appear like a link", but that's not what
the SC covers).

I may be wrong, but this is one of those classic cases where there is no
actual SC (certainly not at A/AA) that covers the problem specifically.
And as others mentioned, this is more of a "just bad design/UX" issue
that affects all users, not specifically users with disabilities
(paradoxically, SR users are less/not affected by this, since they won't
be confused by the inappropriate visual styling of these
non-links-that-look-like-links).

P
--
Patrick H. Lauke

https://www.splintered.co.uk/ | https://github.com/patrickhlauke
https://flickr.com/photos/redux/ | https://www.deviantart.com/redux
twitter: @patrick_h_lauke | skype: patrick_h_lauke