Last time we talked about proper heading structure in your syllabus, this time let’s talk about how to handle links.

Links are a major method for navigating for everyone, but especially screen reader users. Screen readers can pull up a list of links on a page to allow the user to navigate more quickly. If the links are an indecipherable URL or an ambiguous phrase like, “click here” the screen reader user will not know where that link goes. If the links are embedded into meaningful text, they are much more useful.

Meaningful link text examples:

• Instructions for using Moodle are available online.
• Learn more about color and accessibility in terms of contrast and color coding.
• To see how this works, take a look at this tutorial for Submitting Assignments.
• Step one will take you to the NMC website (www.nmc.edu).

Words/phrases to avoid:

• Click here.
• Here.
• More.
• More information.
• Read more.
• Continue.

If you think students will be printing the document and you want them to have the URL, put it in parentheses after the link, but don’t hyperlink it: Northwestern Michigan College (www.nmc.edu).