G91Sufficient technique WCAG 2.4.4 WCAG 2.4.9 Level A Partly scanner-detectable

Write link text that states its purpose

The link says where it goes, on its own, with no help from the sentence around it. G91 is that technique, and W3C counts it as sufficient for two rules, the link-purpose rule at Level A and the stricter link-text-alone rule at Level AAA. That second one is a free upgrade worth knowing about, because writing links this way meets a AAA criterion without anybody planning to. The test is to read the link with nothing around it and ask whether you know where it goes. Current routes at Boulders Climbing Gym passes. Read more does not, and neither does the web address, since a URL is rarely a description of anything.

How we find it in an audit

We pull every link on the audited pages into a flat list and read it out of context, which is exactly the view a screen-reader user gets from a links list. Anything that does not stand up alone gets flagged, and so does any text repeated across links that go to different places. Then the reviewer checks the accessible name rather than only the visible text, since an aria-label can quietly replace what a person reads with something else entirely.

How affected users experience it

Screen-reader users navigate by pulling up a list of the page's links and moving through it, which is far quicker than reading a page top to bottom. That list carries link text and nothing else. A page full of Read more links produces a list of identical entries, so the shortcut stops working and the only way forward is reading the whole page. Search engines and anyone skimming with their eyes gain from the same fix, which is why this one rarely needs arguing for.

Passes vs. fails

Passes: the right voice reads the page. Fails: no lang, so the wrong voice reads it.

Passes

See delivery times, or read our returns policy, with those phrases as the links, each self-identifying wherever it turns up.

Fails

For delivery times, click here. Returns information is here. The links list reads here, here.

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 on its own. Implement it correctly, in a way your readers' software actually supports, and the rule is met.

This guide is our interpretation of W3C technique G91: Providing link text that describes the purpose of a link. 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.