Offer a switch to self-describing link text
G189 gives the reader a control that switches link text between a short form and a long, self-describing one. W3C's reasoning is not what people expect. This is not a fix for bad link text. It exists because preferences genuinely differ. Somebody navigating by a list of links wants every entry to stand alone, and somebody reading the prose finds long link text repetitive. W3C lists it as sufficient at 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) at Level A, and again at the Level AAA rule about link purpose from the link alone, in both cases when it is used for exactly this choice. Two requirements travel with it. If the switching control is itself a link, its own purpose has to be clear from its link text. W3C also advises saving the choice in a cookie or a profile, so the reader makes it once for the whole site.
How we find it in an audit
Our reviewers pull up the link list on key pages, which is how a screen reader user meets links, and read it without the surrounding text. Fourteen entries reading 'Read more' is the finding. Then we use the control, check the expanded text actually describes each destination, and navigate away to see whether the setting held.
How affected users experience it
Screen readers offer a list of every link on a page, sorted and searchable, and it is one of the fastest ways to move around. That list is useless when every entry says the same thing. Voice control users hit the same wall from another direction, since saying 'click Read more' cannot pick between fourteen identical targets. Self-describing text fixes both, and letting people choose keeps the prose readable for everyone else.
Passes vs. fails
Passes
An 'Expand link text' control near the top rewrites each one to 'Read more, rail strike suspended' and 'Read more, coastal flood warnings'.
Fails
A news home page whose link list announces 'Read more' fourteen times, with nothing to tell the stories apart.
How this gets tested
The W3C publishes test rules that define what a checker looks for here.
- Link has non-empty accessible nameA tool can check this
- Link in context is descriptiveA tool can check this
- Links with identical accessible names and same context serve equivalent purposeA tool finds candidates, you decide
- Link is descriptiveA tool can check this
- Links with identical accessible names have equivalent purposeA tool can check this
Other ways to satisfy this rule
22 guides on this site are filed under 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context). W3C lists this one as sufficient for that rule when used for allowing the user to choose short or long link text, so the condition is part of the test rather than a footnote to it.
- ARIA7sufficientBuild clear link names from nearby headings
- ARIA8sufficientFix vague link text with aria-label
- C7sufficientAdd hidden text to clarify short links
- G53sufficientLet the sentence around a link explain it
- G91sufficientWrite link text that states its purpose
- H24sufficientAdd alt text to every image map area
This guide is our interpretation of W3C technique G189: Providing a control near the beginning of the web page that changes the link text. W3C publishes its techniques as guidance rather than as the standard, and says so on every one of them. The success criterion is what conformance is measured against, and a technique is one documented way to meet it.