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Thread: WebAim Links- Color and Hover Effects

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From: RODNEY TOLIVER
Date: Wed, Dec 12 2007 8:50AM
Subject: WebAim Links- Color and Hover Effects
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I have gone back and forth with myself in trying to determine the best
way to display links on a Web page. When I say the best way, I mean one
that is universally accessible. I have become very curious as to the way
the WebAim presents its links.



What is the advantage of presenting links the way that WebAim does. They
have regular link with hover effects that change the background to a
soft yellow and the link text to maroon. Does anyone know why that is?

From: Jen Rohrig
Date: Wed, Dec 12 2007 9:30AM
Subject: Re: WebAim Links- Color and Hover Effects
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It's basically so that the link becomes very obvious that it's a link.
Someone with low vision (and possibly other disabilities) may not be
able to see that something is a link without some kind of visual cue.
The more obvious change the move obvious it's a link. I think it ends up
being more useful when there are links in large blocks of text but it
works for menu links too.

Jen Rohrig

RODNEY TOLIVER wrote:
> What is the advantage of presenting links the way that WebAim does. They
> have regular link with hover effects that change the background to a
> soft yellow and the link text to maroon. Does anyone know why that is?
>
>

From: Jared Smith
Date: Wed, Dec 12 2007 10:20AM
Subject: Re: WebAim Links- Color and Hover Effects
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On 12/12/07, RODNEY TOLIVER < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>
> What is the advantage of presenting links the way that WebAim does. They
> have regular link with hover effects that change the background to a
> soft yellow and the link text to maroon. Does anyone know why that is?

Jen already discussed most of the advantages. It is also makes links
more visually apparent to keyboard users as they tab through the
links.

The colors we use are not based on any guideline or research. We
simply chose colors that would be visually apparent and provide plenty
of contrast while maintaining typical link colors - blue for
non-visited, red for active, and purple for visited.

This becomes a bit more difficult when you are using images as menu
items. For our tab navigation, we provide the same functionality by
changing the location of CSS background images based on the status of
the link.

Jared Smith
WebAIM