Technique H77:Identifying the purpose of a link using link text combined with its enclosing list item

Applicability

All technologies that contain links.

This technique relates to 2.4.4: Link Purpose (In Context) (Sufficient when used with Identifying the purpose of a link using link text combined with programmatically determined link context using one of the following techniques: ).

Description

The objective of this technique is to identify the purpose of a link from the link and its list item context. The list item enclosing the link provides context for an otherwise unclear link when the list item is the nearest enclosing block-level ancestor element. The description lets a user distinguish this link from links in the Web page that lead to other destinations and helps the user determine whether to follow the link. Note that simply providing the URI of the destination is generally not sufficiently descriptive.

These descriptions will be most useful to the user if the additional information needed to understand the link precedes the link. If the additional information follows the link, there can be confusion and difficulty for screen reader users who are reading through the page in order (top to bottom).

Examples

Example 1

<ul>
  <li>
    Check out the video report for last year's 
    <a href="festival.htm">National Folk Festival</a>.
  </li>
  <li>
    <a href="listen.htm">Listen to the instruments</a>
  </li>
  <li>
    Guitar Man: George Golden talks about 
    <a href="mkguitars.htm">making guitars</a>.
  </li>
</ul>

Example 2: A list of video games for download

<ul>
  <li>
    <a href="tomb_raider.htm">Tomb Raider: Legend</a>
    <a href="tomb_raider_images.htm">See Images</a>
    <a href="tomb_raider.mpeg">(Download Demo)</a>
  </li>
  <li>
    <a href="fear_extraction.htm">F.E.A.R. Extraction Point</a>
    <a href="fear_extraction_images.htm">See Images</a>
    <a href="fear_extraction.mpeg">(Download Demo)</a>
  </li>
  <li>
    <a href="call_of_duty.htm">Call of Duty 2</a>
    <a href="call_of_duty_images.htm">See Images</a>
    <a href="call_of_duty.mpeg">(Download Demo)</a>
  </li>
  <li>
    <a href="Warhammer 40K.htm">Warhammer 40K</a>
    <a href="warhammer_40k_images.htm">See Images</a>
    <a href="Warhammer_40k.mpeg">(Download Demo)</a>
  </li>
</ul>

Tests

Procedure

For each link in the content that uses this technique:

  1. Check that the link is part of a list item.
  2. Check that text of the link combined with the text of its enclosing list item describes the purpose of the link.

Expected Results

  • The above checks are true.