Overview

When adding hyperlinks to a document or website it benefits all users to use descriptive hyperlinks. This lesson will introduce the concept of descriptive hyperlinks and give tips on how to write descriptive hyperlinks.

Core Concepts

Descriptive Hyperlinks

When you are providing a link to something, avoid pasting the full URL onto the page. Full URLs, at least long ones, are difficult to read and very rarely contain any useful information. Instead, you want to embed the URL into descriptive text that will tell the reader where they will be taken if they click on the link.

This also means to avoid embedding URLs into phrases like "click here" or "link" as they do not give the user much information about what will happen when they click on that link. Instead, use descriptive language. Listen for yourself:

Non-Descriptive Text in Links:

Donald Tapscott, in his paper ''Growing Up Digital," http://www.ncsu.edu/meridian/jan98/feat_6/digital.html says these students...

Descriptive Text in Links:

Donald Tapscott, in his paper '' Growing Up Digital ," says these students....

Demos: Courtesy of University of Central Florida, Nancy Swenson and John Raible

Video Supplements

Hyperlinks (3 mins)

A quick video from University of Minnesota on why and how to use descriptive hyperlinks. The video demonstrates adding and changing hyperlinks in a Google document. The supplementary modules will show you how to do this in other programs.

Hyperlinks

Ambiguous Links with JAWS (23 seconds)

This video from the Assistive Technology Resource Center at Colorado State University shows what a screen reader user would hear when encountering ambiguous links.

Ambiguous Links List with Jaws

Additional Resources

Descriptive Links- A quick tutorial from Oregon State on how to use descriptive hyperlinks.