Technique ARIA8:Using aria-label for link purpose

Applicability

Technologies that support Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA).

This technique relates to:

Description

The objective of this technique is to describe the purpose of a link using the aria-label attribute. The aria-label attribute provides a way to place a descriptive text label on an object, such as a link, when there are no elements visible on the page that describe the object. If descriptive elements are visible on the page, the aria-labelledby attribute should be used instead of aria-label. Providing a descriptive text label lets a user distinguish the link from links in the Web page that lead to other destinations and helps the user determine whether to follow the link. In some assistive technologies the aria-label value will show in the list of links instead of the actual link text.

Per the Accessible Name and Description Computation and the HTML to Platform Accessibility APIs Implementation Guide, the aria-label text will override the text supplied within the link. As such the text supplied will be used instead of the link text by AT. Due to this it is recommended to start the text used in aria-label with the text used within the link. This will allow consistent communication between users.

Examples

Other sources

No endorsement implied.

Tests

Procedure

For link elements that use aria-label:

  1. Check that the value of the aria-label attribute properly describes the purpose of the link element.

Expected Results

  • #1 is true.