Screen readers allow users to scan the webpage without reading the entire page. Make sure your link text makes sense in this respect.

Good Examples:

• Read more about triggers for seizures
• Register now for web content management system training
• Application for Accessibility Training (January 30)

Sometimes you don’t have room on the webpage to provide all that text. Depending on your technical knowledge. you can contact Web Operations for assistance in hiding text or add the code in on your own. This code is screen reader friendly code. It hides the additional text your visual users don’t need, but screen readers include it while reading the link text. In those case, “Read more” types of textual links can have hidden text like “about triggers for seizures”.

We often forget that when we add links to a webpage, we don’t need to visually show the web address. Those are only required on print materials and publications. On the web and other electronic documents (as long as you have an internet connection), link text in the form of a web address can be very confusing if not exceedingly annoying.

These can be resolved by either removing the web address instructions, if they are already on the page, or replacing the web address as link text with the title of the page and linking directly to the page desired. This clarifies the location and improves usability, since they don’t have to navigate (or type) anywhere else for the link to information.

Users with cognitive or visual impairments and disabilities need links across the website, both in navigation and in the main content, to consistently:

• behave (e.g. function in a commonly known fashion)
• display on the page (e.g. indicating what type of link)

When expectations are changed, this causes confusion (see a light-hearted explanation of user expectations, starting at 1:49 in the video). Our goal is to reduce that confusion, known as the principle of least astonishment.

For example, users expect to be able to control how the links they select appear in their browser. They are familiar with their device’s functionality and their own habits. However, when a user opens a new tab, that removes navigational options.

Whenever possible, make sure your links do not force your users to open them in new windows/tabs of their browsers. This decision should be controlled by the user, not the designer, as menu and keyboard options are available on browsers to allow the user to make that choice.

Confusion and usability issues for all individuals, no matter their abilities, get amplified when documents (e.g. PDF, DOC, XLS, PPT) are in the main content or navigation.

In the main content of a webpage, Tarleton’s new responsive template automatically identifies types of documents, so users know to expect their browser to open a document¹:

• in the same tab of the browser
• in a new tab or window of the browser
• in the application installed on their device (if it is installed)

Exceptions are described below for special link types, like email addresses and phone numbers.

As a general compliance rule, documents are not as accessible as webpages or need far more effort to become in compliance, so this change in environment and access should be used only when absolutely necessary. If the content cannot be displayed and maintained in a webpage to function correctly (e.g. web form, résumé), then a document can be used¹ (see Nielsen Norman Group’s web usability article Can Hated Design Elements Be Made to Work?).

• ¹Note that if the user does not have the software or application installed on their device to properly use the document, then they also do not have access to that information. This is why PDF’s are the preferred document to link to, since they are the most compatible across devices and browsers.

In the navigation of a website, users expect to find a way from one webpage to the next within the website, not exit the navigation of the website entirely. This happens when a user selects a link to open a document¹, and includes the following potential issues:

• The document is self-contained; it may have its own table of contents and/or links, but it is not the same navigation as the website the user was previously on. This removes the user from the website’s navigation and requires them to determine for themselves where they are and how to get back.
• TAC 206.70 requires websites to now support the “variations in internet connection speeds and emerging communications protocols and technologies,” an accessibility guideline that affects individuals of all abilities. Documents are often inaccessible due to file size because users are not willing or able to wait for the documents to download to their device. They must be fully loaded on a user’s device before the user can open and view them.
  • Webpages open much faster than documents with similar content.
  • Tarleton’s responsive template allows portions of the page to load and special parts, including images, to load later as desired by the user as they scroll down the page.