Published on: 30/10/2023 · Last updated on: 02/06/2026
What to do
- Write descriptive link text that clearly explains the destination.
- Use links to support navigation to key resources/webpages/places in documents
- Avoid links that open in a new tab or window without warning, as this can be disorientating.
Why do it?
Creating descriptive and meaningful links helps all users understand where a link goes before they click it. This is especially important for screen reader users, as well as dyslexic and neurodivergent students.
Students Explain Digital Accessibility: Descriptive links from LX. lab
Meaningful links improve navigation and understanding for many users:
- Screen reader users often scan lists of links without surrounding text.
- Users with blind or low vision may not know what “click here” refers to.
- Some screen readers read URLs character by character, making them hard to understand.
- Neurodivergent users benefit from clear, predictable navigation.
- All users find descriptive links quicker and less ambiguous.
How to write accurate and descriptive links
- Avoid vague link text such as click here, download, or more.
- Do not use the full web address as the link text. For example: Moodle Accessibility Essentials Resource – Links instead of
https://moodle.bath.ac.uk/mod/book/view.php?id=1043529&chapterid=30653 (the latter would give the user no information
about the purpose of the link and a screenreader software may also struggle)- Include context about the destination within the link text (e.g. the name of the external site)
How to add accessible links
Add links in Microsoft apps (including Word, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams):
- Write descriptive link text (e.g. BBC News Homepage)
- Select the text.
- Right click and select Link (or press Ctrl K) and paste the web address
Add links in Moodle:
- Write descriptive link text.
- Select the text.
- Choose the Link icon (or Ctrl + K) and paste the URL.
How can I spot and fix these issues?
Microsoft Office checks
Microsoft Office doesn’t have a tool to spot inaccessible links, so make sure to get these right when writing and check.
Moodle checks
Moodle’s text editor warns you when link text is not descriptive enough and suggests improvements.
The Accessibility+ Toolkit helps spot:
- Links without descriptive text
- Links that open in a new window without warning
Both of these issues can be easily fixed using the wizard tools. If you want to prevent links from opening in a new window, you can use the ‘Fix link targets‘ option. To improve the descriptive text added to your links, you can select the ‘Fix link text‘ wizard (as shown in the image below).
Avoid links opening in a new window/tab
Links should not opening in new window/tab (although this used to be common practice). Links in new windows:
- can be disorientating for people (especially those who have difficulty perceiving visual content).
- prevents the use of the back button. Even for external links, the back button usually returns you to the place you left off.
- are normally unnecessary: users can choose to open the link in a new window with (Windows: right-click then open in new tab, Ctrl-click, middle click; Mac: Control-click) if they know where the link is going.
There are few exceptions when it can be useful to open a link in a new window/tab. In both cases, you should use clearly state (opens in new window) in the hyperlinked text.
- A user has started media playing (e.g. audio explanation) and opening a link in the current page would stop this.
- A user is completing an action on the page (e.g. H5P activity) and opening a link in the current page would lose the user’s progress.