CODEWITHSUNDEEP
htmlhyperlinkaccessibilitywcag2.0
Max
Max

Reputation: 23

Achecker Link text may not be meaningful

I'm trying check my website by http://achecker.ca and in potential problems section, I have very much problems... Exactly I mean this problem:

Success Criteria 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) (A) Check 19: Link text may not be meaningful.

Every link on my main page is listed here as a problem... What wrong could be in links like that:

<a href="http://webpage.pl/party" class="menu">PARTY</a>

<a href="news/2538">News title</a>

<a href="#i10"><img src="images/ico/ico10.gif" alt="games"></a>

Upvotes: 2

Views: 954

Answers (3)

Greg Gay
Greg Gay

Reputation: 38

The potential problems listed by AChecker are typically not problems at all, but a human has to make that confirmation.

Regarding the meaningfulness of your links, think about someone giving you the text of a link on its own and asking you to define its meaning. Is the word "Party" meaningful. This word can be interpreted in multiple ways.

When navigating with a screen reader (if one is blind) listening to links in the sequence they appear on the page, nearby links can add meaning to single words like this. Will the links prior give the word Party the meaning of a "festive occasion" or perhaps a "political party", or even an "interested party," etc.. "News titles" is probably meaningful enough. "Games," the alt text for the image, could also be interpreted in multiple ways. Is there context (surrounding links) that give more specific meaning to the word "games?" Olympic games, video games, playing games, etc. If the context does not add meaning, then the link text itself needs to be adjusted to specify which meaning of the word is being used.

All links will be listed as "potential" problems by AChecker, requiring a human to make a decision on whether the text effectively describes the link's destination or function.

Potential problems are those the checker cannot identify with any certianty. Anywhere there is meaning involved, AChecker will identify potential problems. Known, Likely, and Potential problems are described on the first page of the Handbook, linked from the top right corner of AChecker.

http://achecker.ca/documentation/index.php?p=checker/index.php

Quote from the handbook: AChecker identifies 3 types of problems:

  • Known problems: These are problems that have been identified with certainty as accessibility barriers. You must modify your page to fix these problems;
  • Likely problems:These are problems that have been identified as probable barriers, but require a human to make a decision. You will likely need to modify your page to fix these problems;
  • Potential problems: These are problems that AChecker cannot identify, that require a human decision. You may have to modify your page for these problems, but in many cases you will just need to confirm that the problem described is not present.

Upvotes: 1

unor
unor

Reputation: 96507

The testing tool http://achecker.ca/ shows this potential problem for all links, even for this one (which is as meaningful as it can get):

<a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/38933605/achecker-link-text-may-not-be-meaningful" rel="external">
Stack Overflow question: <cite>Achecker Link text may not be meaningful</cite>
</a>

It’s documented at http://achecker.ca/checker/suggestion.php?id=19, where it says under "Short Description":

All a (anchor) elements that contains [sic] any text will generate this error.

This page also gives hints how to determine/check if your links pass or fail.

The relevant WCAG 2.0 guideline is 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context).

Upvotes: 1

Fiona - myaccessible.website
Fiona - myaccessible.website

Reputation: 14921

The key here is that they might not be meaningful.

I think they are being flagged because they only have 1-2 words in and so the tool is asking you to verify that the link text is good.

The kind of thing that should actually be considered as a failure of this rule are links that simply read "click here" or "more info", because they aren't actually explaining where the link goes. Other things to watch out for are multiple links with the same text but different destinations, and links with no text at all.

Upvotes: 0

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