WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Thread: Re: what order is link title read in?

for

Number of posts in this thread: 3 (In chronological order)

From: E.J. Zufelt
Date: Fri, Mar 25 2011 11:51AM
Subject: Re: what order is link title read in?
No previous message | Next message →

Good afternoon,

The title attribute of an anchor is almost never read when there is anchor text with the default configuration of screen-readers.

Everett Zufelt
http://zufelt.ca

Follow me on Twitter
http://twitter.com/ezufelt

View my LinkedIn Profile
http://www.linkedin.com/in/ezufelt



On 2011-03-25, at 1:45 PM, Angela French wrote:

> If a title attribute is used on a link, which order does a screen reader read the title attribute value and the link text?
>
> Here is my example:
>
> <a href="/filepath " title="about the case for usability in the government">Learn More</a>
>
> Is it read as "about the case for usability in the government Learn More" or "Learn More about the case....government"
>
> Thank you.
>
> Angela French
> Internet Specialist
> State Board for Community and Technical Colleges
> 360-704-4316
> = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
> http://www.checkoutacollege.com<;http://www.checkoutacollege.com/>;
>
>

From: Angela French
Date: Fri, Mar 25 2011 11:57AM
Subject: what order is link title read in?
← Previous message | Next message →

If a title attribute is used on a link, which order does a screen reader read the title attribute value and the link text?

Here is my example:

<a href="/filepath " title="about the case for usability in the government">Learn More</a>

Is it read as "about the case for usability in the government Learn More" or "Learn More about the case....government"

Thank you.

Angela French
Internet Specialist
State Board for Community and Technical Colleges
360-704-4316
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
http://www.checkoutacollege.com<;http://www.checkoutacollege.com/>;

From: Jukka K. Korpela
Date: Fri, Mar 25 2011 1:33PM
Subject: Re: what order is link title read in?
← Previous message | No next message

E.J. Zufelt wrote:

> The title attribute of an anchor is almost never read when there is
> anchor text with the default configuration of screen-readers.

Perhaps more importantly, the link text is the primary text for the link,
and for the vast majority of users, it's the only link text they perceive.
In particular, the example...

>> <a href="/filepath " title="about the case for usability in the
>> government">Learn More</a>

...is bad usage, since the primary link text is "Learn More", spelled oddly
(as if "More" were a proper noun), not indicative of the content of the
target of the link. It's common to use such link texts, especially when
presenting headlines of news, but it's still bad usage. Think about a list
of links on a page, filled with some number of "Learn More" links.

There's often no simple solution, but basically, you should try to put the
description in the link text, e.g.: Learn more: <a
href="/filepath">Usability in the government</a>.

--
Yucca, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/