Accessibility rule: Link without a text alternative, explained

This check makes sure that all types of links that assistive technology users might encounter have an accessible name. Screen reader users need a good text description of the link, they are about to click.

Who is impacted by?

If an image link is missing an accessible name, screen reader users will not know what the link is supposed to do. In this case, many screen readers will read the URL of the link instead.

Note: Here we check for the presence of an accessible name. It does not check how suitable the link text is.

You can read more about the best practices for accessible links here.

How does the check work?

This rule checks that links, such as <a> elements, <area> elements, and elements with a role=link attribute, have an accessible name.

You can read more about this check in the technical documentation for Alfa, Siteimprove’s open-source accessibility conformance testing engine.