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Is the title attribute for links required for 508 compliance or does the text in the link suffice?
Thanks!
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Link Title Attribute Best PracticesYou should use a link title when you are providing more information about the link. Don't use a link title to provide the information over again, as this is a usability fail that will only result in annoying your users.
Screen readers users will have access to the control label, as the title attribute is mapped to the accessible name property in accessibility APIs (when a text label using the label element is not supplied ).
What is the link title attribute? Put simply, the link title attribute gives additional information about the page being linked to. Here's what the W3C has to say about it: The title attribute is used to provide additional information to help clarify or further describe the purpose of a link.
A person who uses a screen reader because they are blind or have low vision will likely never have the title attribute read to them. Some screen readers don't support the title attribute and those that do, don't read the title attribute by default.
The current Section 508 standards don't include any explicit requirements related to links.
An update of these standards is in the works, and may align the standards with WCAG 2.0. WCAG 2.0 simply requires that the purpose of each link be clear to users.
The best way to make a link's purpose clear is via meaningful link text. It's ok to supplement link text with a title attribute if doing so adds clarity, but it's not required, and the information in the title attribute should not be essential because if link text and a title attribute are both present, screen readers typically read the text by default and ignore the title.
There's additional information from the W3C at Understanding SC 2.4.4 (Link Purpose) and H33: Supplementing link text with the title attribute.
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508 Standards, Section 1194.22 (a) states that:
A text equivalent for every non-text element shall be provided
A link is a text element.
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