Descriptive Link Text

Overview

When adding hyperlinks, use meaningful text rather than generic phrases like “Click here,” “More,” or simply pasting the full URL. Clear link text helps all readers understand where the link will lead. For screen reader users, posting a raw URL can be particularly problematic—screen readers will read the entire address aloud, which can be long and confusing. Many screen reader users also navigate by pulling up a list of all links on a page. If those links are labeled only as “Click here” or “More,” the list becomes meaningless, offering no clue about the destination. 

✅Checklist for Writing Accessible Link Text

• Link text clearly describes the destination or action

• Link text does not include full URLs in visible link text

• All links on a page are unique

• Link text avoids vague phrases like “click here” or “read more”

• Link text is concise and avoids being overly long

• Avoid using the word "link"  (Screen readers will automatically announce the word “link” before reading the hyperlink text)

Selected Examples 

Descriptive Text

✅ Download the accessibility guidelines.

✅ The course syllabus provides  further details.

❌ Download here / Click here / Read more / Learn more / More info

Don't Use Full URLs

✅Take time to read the accessibility guide.

❌https://www.accessibeykzlX7iXwD2vaREme

As Short as possible (Always link text titles only) 

✅ Lonigan, E. (1939). The effect of modern technological conditions upon the employment of labor. The American Economic Review, 246-259.

❌ Lonigan, E. (1939). The effect of modern technological conditions upon the employment of labor. The American Economic Review, 246-259.

Make All Unique on a Page

 ✅ Week 1 Lecture Slides

✅  Week 2 Lecture Slides

❌ Lecture Slides 

❌ Lecture Slides 

Site Scanning Tools: UDOIT & Ally Course Accessibility Report

About: Entire site scans are great for a comprehensive look at all the issues on your site and track your improvements through the scores generated. One recommended strategy is to choose one of the accessibility core areas and use the tools' filters to target a selected one of them at a time. These tool are accessed by clicking the link on your course navigation menu. If not present, this article will show you how to enable: Manage Course Navigation Links.

UDOIT is the only site scanning tool that will identify issues with links. However, it only flags full URLs used as links: It will not flag expressions like "click here" or other issues described above.

💡 Tip: If your site has a large quantity of URLs used as links, UDOIT can be handy to fix those and you can do the rest manually or with DesignPLUS.

Selected Content Scanning in Canvas Edit Mode: Ally, Canvas, and DesignPLUS Accessibility Checkers

About: These three tools to do scans, not of an entire course, but on individual items of Canvas content such a page, assignment description, announcement, etc. They can be accessed anytime you are in Canvas Edit mode. Many users find these tools useful for quick clean ups of selected content and in tandem with site scanning tools. Making a habit of using these to check and fix content every time you're working in Canvas will go a long way in the ultimate goal of creating content that's accessible for all from the start! 

DesignPlus is the only one of these tools that will identify issues with descriptive link text including full URLS, repeated link text, and non-descriptive terms like "Learn more." 

Manual Fixing with the Canvas "Link Options" feature

Canvas has native features for fixing virtually all of the accessibility core issues--and avoiding creating those issues from the start when you are aware of them. 

• It is recommended to visually scan all site content (not just pages) and fix links. This feature in Canvas makes it very easy to edit link text.   

• In Edit mode, click the link and then "Link Options." This will provide a window to quickly replace the link text.