Operable / 2.4 Navigable
2.4.4Link Purpose (In Context)
Level AEnsure each link's purpose can be determined from its link text alone or together with programmatically associated context, such as the enclosing sentence or heading. Text like "click here" is acceptable if the surrounding context makes the destination clear, but visual proximity alone does not count as context.
Note
A detailed commentary for this success criterion is not yet available. In the meantime, this page lists related patterns, techniques, and links to the normative sources.
Related Techniques
Specific implementation techniques for meeting this success criterion. This site doesn't include the full text, so follow the links to the original W3C documents.
Sufficient Techniques(16)
Show all (16)
- ARIA7: Using aria-labelledby for link purpose(opens in a new tab)waic.jp(opens in a new tab)
- ARIA8: Using aria-label for link purpose(opens in a new tab)waic.jp(opens in a new tab)
- C7: Using CSS to hide a portion of the link text(opens in a new tab)waic.jp(opens in a new tab)
- G53: Identifying the purpose of a link using link text combined with the text of the enclosing sentence(opens in a new tab)waic.jp(opens in a new tab)
- G91: Providing link text that describes the purpose of a link(opens in a new tab)waic.jp(opens in a new tab)
- G189: Providing a control near the beginning of the web page that changes the link text(opens in a new tab)waic.jp(opens in a new tab)
- H24: Providing text alternatives for the area elements of image maps(opens in a new tab)waic.jp(opens in a new tab)
- H30: Providing link text that describes the purpose of a link for anchor elements(opens in a new tab)waic.jp(opens in a new tab)
- H33: Supplementing link text with the title attribute(opens in a new tab)waic.jp(opens in a new tab)
- H77: Identifying the purpose of a link using link text combined with its enclosing list item(opens in a new tab)waic.jp(opens in a new tab)
- H78: Identifying the purpose of a link using link text combined with its enclosing paragraph(opens in a new tab)waic.jp(opens in a new tab)
- H79: Identifying the purpose of a link in a data table using the link text combined with its enclosing table cell and associated table header cells(opens in a new tab)waic.jp(opens in a new tab)
- H81: Identifying the purpose of a link in a nested list using link text combined with the parent list item under which the list is nested(opens in a new tab)waic.jp(opens in a new tab)
- PDF11: Providing links and link text using the Link annotation and the /Link structure element in PDF documents(opens in a new tab)waic.jp(opens in a new tab)
- PDF13: Providing replacement text using the /Alt entry for links in PDF documents(opens in a new tab)waic.jp(opens in a new tab)
- SCR30: Using scripts to change the link text(opens in a new tab)waic.jp(opens in a new tab)
Advisory Techniques(2)
Failures(2)
- F63: Failure of Success Criterion 2.4.4 due to providing link context only in content that is not related to the link(opens in a new tab)waic.jp(opens in a new tab)
- F89: Failure of Success Criteria 2.4.4, 2.4.9 and 4.1.2 due to not providing an accessible name for an image which is the only content in a link(opens in a new tab)waic.jp(opens in a new tab)
Normative References
- Success Criterion 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) — WCAG 2.2(opens in a new tab)The normative requirement text.
- Understanding Link Purpose (In Context) — W3C(opens in a new tab)Official guidance on intent, examples, and techniques.