Let the sentence around a link explain it
A link reading Learn more is fine as long as the sentence holding it says where it goes. G53 is that route, and W3C counts it as sufficient for the link-purpose-in-context rule at Level A, so using it meets that rule on its own. The word sentence is doing real work here. G53 accepts the enclosing sentence and nothing wider, so a heading two lines up, or a card title sitting in a separate element, does not rescue the link. The rule itself is more generous and has its own separate techniques for the enclosing paragraph, list item, table cell and table headers. One more detail decides whether this works out loud. The explaining words belong before the link rather than after it, because a screen-reader user reading in order meets the link first and has nothing yet to hang it on.
How we find it in an audit
We list every link on the audited pages and read the ones whose text does not stand up alone. For each of those, the question is whether the sentence containing it names the destination, and containing means the same sentence rather than the same corner of the screen. Card layouts fail this constantly, since the title and the Learn more link usually sit in separate elements with no sentence joining them. Repeated link text going to different places gets flagged on its own, because that is where context has to carry the whole load.
How affected users experience it
Reading a page in order, a screen-reader user meets the link inside its sentence and the context arrives naturally, which is why this route works at all. Pull up the links list, though, and the sentences are gone. Learn more, Learn more, Learn more. So the rule allowing context does not make context the better answer, it makes it the acceptable one. Link text that names its own destination works in both views, and this technique only works in one of them.
Passes vs. fails
Passes
Our 2026 audit pricing is published, with 2026 audit pricing as the link, so the sentence and the link text carry the destination together.
Fails
Three product cards each end in Learn more, and the card text sits in a separate element, so no sentence encloses the link.
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
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 on its own. Implement it correctly, in a way your readers' software actually supports, and the rule is met.
- ARIA7sufficientBuild clear link names from nearby headings
- ARIA8sufficientFix vague link text with aria-label
- C7sufficientAdd hidden text to clarify short links
- G91sufficientWrite link text that states its purpose
- G189sufficientOffer a switch to self-describing link text
- H24sufficientAdd alt text to every image map area
This guide is our interpretation of W3C technique G53: Identifying the purpose of a link using link text combined with the text of the enclosing sentence. 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.