SIA-R41Links with identical accessible names have equivalent purpose

Accessibility requirements

This rule tests conformance of the following accessibility requirements:

Description

This rule checks that links with identical accessible names resolve to the same resource or equivalent resources.

Applicability

This rule applies to every set of any two or more elements in the HTML or SVG namespace which

Expectations

  1. When followed, the links in each set of target elements resolve to the same resource or to equivalent resources. Resolving the links includes potential redirects if the redirects happen without perceivable delay.

Assumptions

This rule makes the following assumptions:

  • The purpose of the links with identical accessible names are not be ambiguous to users in general when perceived in context on the web page. If the links are ambiguous to users in general, users of assistive technologies are not at a disadvantage when perceiving the links out of context, such as in a list of links in a screen reader.

  • Within the context of the test subject, the description provided by the accessible name of a link can only accurately describe one resource. If two or more links have the same accessible name but resolve to different resources, at least one of them does therefore not describe its purpose.

  • The language of each test target can be correctly determined, either programmatically or by analyzing the content, and sufficiently understood.

  • Assistive technologies expose all links on the page in the same way no matter which document tree they are in.

Accessibility support

This rule has no known accessibility support concerns.

Examples

Acknowledgments

This document includes material copied from or derived from https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/act/rules/b20e66/. Copyright © 2024 W3C® (MIT, ERCIM, Keio, Beihang).