ACT-Rules Community

Link has non-empty accessible name

  • Rule Type:atomic
  • Rule Id: c487ae
  • Last modified: Jan 20, 2022
  • Accessibility Requirements Mapping:
    • 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (Level A)
      • Learn More about 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value
      • Required for conformance to WCAG 2.0 and later on level A and higher.
      • Outcome mapping:
        • Any failed outcomes: success criterion is not satisfied.
        • All passed outcomes: success criterion needs further testing.
        • An inapplicable outcome: success criterion needs further testing.
    • 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) (Level A)
      • Learn More about 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context)
      • Required for conformance to WCAG 2.0 and later on level A and higher.
      • Outcome mapping:
        • Any failed outcomes: success criterion is not satisfied.
        • All passed outcomes: success criterion needs further testing.
        • An inapplicable outcome: success criterion needs further testing.
    • 2.4.9 Link Purpose (Link Only) (Level AAA)
      • Learn More about 2.4.9 Link Purpose (Link Only)
      • Required for conformance to WCAG 2.0 and later on level AAA.
      • Outcome mapping:
        • Any failed outcomes: success criterion is not satisfied.
        • All passed outcomes: success criterion needs further testing.
        • An inapplicable outcome: success criterion needs further testing.
    • G91: Providing link text that describes the purpose of a link
      • Learn More about technique G91
      • Not required to conformance to any W3C accessibility recommendation.
      • Outcome mapping:
        • Any failed outcomes: technique is not satisfied.
        • All passed outcomes: technique needs further testing.
        • An inapplicable outcome: technique needs further testing.
  • Input Aspects:

Description

This rule checks that each link has a non-empty accessible name.

Applicability

This rule applies to any HTML element that is an inheriting semantic link included in the accessibility tree.

Expectation

Each target element has an accessible name that is not empty ("").

Assumptions

The rule assumes that all links are user interface components as defined by WCAG 2. When the link role is used on elements that do not behave as links, failing this rule might not mean that the success criteria are failed.

Accessibility Support

  • There are assistive technologies that do not support using the title attribute for an accessible name, or in which this feature can be disabled.
  • For area elements that have an href attribute, but are not nested inside a map element, there are differences between browsers and assistive technology on if the area is included in the accessibility tree.
  • Implementation of Presentational Roles Conflict Resolution varies from one browser or assistive technology to another. Depending on this, some semantic link elements can fail this rule with some technology but users of other technologies would not experience any accessibility issue.
  • Accessibility support for some elements inheriting the semantic role of link (e.g. elements with doc-* attributes) may vary depending on the assistive technology in use.

Background

Bibliography

Test Cases

Passed

Passed Example 1

Open in a new tab

This a element has an accessible name from its content.

<a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI"> Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) </a>

Passed Example 2

Open in a new tab

This div element has an explicit semantic role of link and an accessible name from its content.

<div role="link" onclick="openLink(event)" onkeyup="openLink(event)" tabindex="0">
	Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
</div>
<script>
	function openLink(event) {
		if (event.type === 'click' || ['Enter', ' '].includes(event.key)) {
			window.location.href = 'https://www.w3.org/WAI/'
		}
	}
</script>

Passed Example 3

Open in a new tab

This button element has an explicit semantic role of link and an accessible name from its content.

<button role="link" onclick="window.location.href='https://www.w3.org/WAI/'">Click me for WAI!</button>

Passed Example 4

Open in a new tab

This a element has an accessible name via aria-label

<a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI"
	><img src="/test-assets/shared/w3c-logo.png" aria-label="Web Accessibility Initiative"
/></a>

Passed Example 5

Open in a new tab

This a element has an accessible name via title.

<a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI" title="Web Accessibility Initiative"
	><img src="/test-assets/shared/w3c-logo.png" alt=""
/></a>

Passed Example 6

Open in a new tab

This a element has an accessible name from its content via the title on the img element.

<a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI"><img src="/test-assets/shared/w3c-logo.png" title="Web Accessibility Initiative"/></a>

Passed Example 7

Open in a new tab

This a element has an accessible name from its content.

<a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI"
	><img src="/test-assets/shared/w3c-logo.png" alt="" />Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)</a
>

Passed Example 8

Open in a new tab

This a element has an accessible name from its content via aria-labelledby on the img element.

<a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI"><img src="/test-assets/shared/w3c-logo.png" aria-labelledby="id1"/></a>
<div id="id1">Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)</div>

Passed Example 9

Open in a new tab

This a element placed off screen has an accessible name from its content.

<html>
	<style>
		.offScreenLink {
			position: absolute;
			left: -9999px;
			top: -9999px;
		}
	</style>
	<body>
		<a class="offScreenLink" href="https://www.w3.org/WAI">Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)</a>
	</body>
</html>

Passed Example 10

Open in a new tab

This area element has a semantic role of link and an accessible name via alt.

<img src="/test-assets/c487ae/planets.jpg" width="145" height="126" alt="Planets" usemap="#planetmap" />

<map name="planetmap">
	<area shape="rect" coords="0,0,30,100" href="sun.htm" alt="Sun" />
</map>

Passed Example 11

Open in a new tab

This a element is an inheriting semantic link given by its role="doc-biblioref" attribute as well as an accessible name given by its child text node.

See [<a href="https://act-rules.github.io/" role="doc-biblioref">ACT rules</a>]

Failed

Failed Example 1

Open in a new tab

This a element has an empty accessible name.

<a href="http://www.w3.org/WAI"></a>

Failed Example 2

Open in a new tab

This a element with an image has an empty accessible name. The image is decorative and is marked as such with an empty alt attribute value.

<a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI"><img src="/test-assets/shared/w3c-logo.png" alt=""/></a>

Failed Example 3

Open in a new tab

This a element with an image has an empty accessible name. The image is decorative because it has a role attribute value of presentation.

<a href="http://www.w3.org/WAI"><img src="/test-assets/shared/w3c-logo.png" role="presentation"/></a>

Failed Example 4

Open in a new tab

This a element with an image has an empty accessible name. The image is decorative because it has a role attribute value of none.

<a href="http://www.w3.org/WAI"><img src="/test-assets/shared/w3c-logo.png" role="none"/></a>

Failed Example 5

Open in a new tab

This a element with an img with an empty title has an empty accessible name.

<a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI"><img src="/test-assets/shared/w3c-logo.png" title=""/></a>

Failed Example 6

Open in a new tab

This a element with an img with an aria-labelledby has an empty accessible name.

<a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI"><img src="/test-assets/shared/w3c-logo.png" aria-labelledby="id1"/></a>
<div id="id1"></div>

Failed Example 7

Open in a new tab

This a element with an img with an aria-labelledby referencing a non-existing id has an empty accessible name.

<a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI"><img src="/test-assets/shared/w3c-logo.png" aria-labelledby="id1"/></a>

Failed Example 8

Open in a new tab

This a element placed off screen has an empty accessible name.

<a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI" style="left: -9999px; position: absolute;">
	<img src="/test-assets/shared/w3c-logo.png" />
</a>

Failed Example 9

Open in a new tab

This area element has a semantic role of link and an empty accessible name.

<img src="/test-assets/c487ae/planets.jpg" width="145" height="126" alt="Planets" usemap="#planetmap" />

<map name="planetmap">
	<area shape="rect" coords="0,0,82,126" href="sun.htm" />
</map>

Failed Example 10

Open in a new tab

This a element has an explicit role of none. However, it is focusable (by default). Thus it has a semantic role of link due to Presentational Roles Conflict Resolution. It has an empty accessible name.

<a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI" role="none"> </a>

Failed Example 11

Open in a new tab

This a element is an inheriting semantic link given by its role="doc-biblioref" attribute but it has an empty accessible name.

See [<a href="https://act-rules.github.io/" role="doc-biblioref"
	><img src="https://github.com/act-rules/act-rules.github.io/blob/develop/test-assets/shared/act-logo.png" alt=""/></a
>]

Inapplicable

Inapplicable Example 1

Open in a new tab

This a element does not have a semantic role of link because it has been changed to button.

<a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI" role="button">
	Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
</a>

Inapplicable Example 2

Open in a new tab

This a element is not included in the accessibility tree due to display: none.

<a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI" style="display: none;"><img src="/test-assets/shared/w3c-logo.png"/></a>

Inapplicable Example 3

Open in a new tab

This a element is not included in the accessibility tree due to visibility: hidden.

<a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI" style="visibility: hidden;">Some text</a>

Inapplicable Example 4

Open in a new tab

This a element is not included in the accessibility tree due to aria-hidden="true".

<a aria-hidden="true" href="https://www.w3.org/WAI">
	Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
</a>

Inapplicable Example 5

Open in a new tab

This area element does not have the role of link because it does not have an href attribute.

<area shape="rect" coords="0,0,82,126" />

Inapplicable Example 6

Open in a new tab

This a element does not have the role of link because it does not have an href attribute.

<a />

Glossary

Accessible Name

The accessible name is the programmatically determined name of a user interface element that is included in the accessibility tree.

The accessible name is calculated using the accessible name and description computation.

For native markup languages, such as HTML and SVG, additional information on how to calculate the accessible name can be found in HTML Accessibility API Mappings 1.0, Accessible Name and Description Computation (working draft) and SVG Accessibility API Mappings, Name and Description (working draft).

For more details, see examples of accessible name.

Note: As per the accessible name and description computation, each element always has an accessible name. When no accessible name is provided, the element will nonetheless be assigned an empty ("") one.

Note: As per the accessible name and description computation, accessible names are flat string trimmed of leading and trailing whitespace. Notably, it is not possible for a non-empty accessible name to be composed only of whitespace since these must be trimmed.

Accessibility Support for Accessible Name

  • Because the accessible name and description computation is not clear about which whitespace are considered, browsers behave differently when trimming and flattening the accessible name. For example, some browsers completely trim non-breaking spaces while some keep them in the accessible name.
  • There exists a popular browser which does not perform the same trimming and flattening depending whether the accessible name comes from content, an aria-label attribute, or an alt attribute.
  • There exists a popular browser which assign no accessible name (null) when none is provided, instead of assigned an empty accessible name ("").
  • The accessible name and description computation suggest that if an aria-labelledby attribute refers to an existing but empty element, the computation should stop and return an empty name without defaulting to the next steps. Several user agents and assistive technologies chose to use the next step in the computation in this case.

Attribute value

The attribute value of a content attribute set on an HTML element is the value that the attribute gets after being parsed and computed according to specifications. It may differ from the value that is actually written in the HTML code due to trimming whitespace or non-digits characters, default values, or case-insensitivity.

Some notable case of attribute value, among others:

  • For enumerated attributes, the attribute value is either the state of the attribute, or the keyword that maps to it; even for the default states. Thus <input type="image" /> has an attribute value of either Image Button (the state) or image (the keyword mapping to it), both formulations having the same meaning; similarly, "an input element with a type attribute value of Text" can be either <input type="text" />, <input /> (missing value default), or <input type="invalid" /> (invalid value default).
  • For boolean attributes, the attribute value is true when the attribute is present and false otherwise. Thus <button disabled>, <button disabled="disabled"> and <button disabled=""> all have a disabled attribute value of true.
  • For attributes whose value is used in a case-insensitive context, the attribute value is the lowercase version of the value written in the HTML code.
  • For attributes that accept numbers, the attribute value is the result of parsing the value written in the HTML code according to the rules for parsing this kind of number.
  • For attributes that accept sets of tokens, whether space separated or comma separated, the attribute value is the set of tokens obtained after parsing the set and, depending on the case, converting its items to lowercase (if the set is used in a case-insensitive context).
  • For aria-* attributes, the attribute value is computed as indicated in the WAI-ARIA specification and the HTML Accessibility API Mappings.

This list is not exhaustive, and only serves as an illustration for some of the most common cases.

The attribute value of an IDL attribute is the value returned on getting it. Note that when an IDL attribute reflects a content attribute, they have the same attribute value.

Explicit Semantic Role

The explicit semantic role of an element is determined by its role attribute (if any).

The role attribute takes a list of tokens. The explicit semantic role is the first valid role in this list. The valid roles are all non-abstract roles from WAI-ARIA Specifications. If the element has no role attribute, or if it has one with no valid role, then this element has no explicit semantic role.

Other roles may be added as they become available. Not all roles will be supported in all assistive technologies. Testers are encouraged to adjust which roles are allowed according to the accessibility support base line. For the purposes of executing test cases in all rules, it should be assumed that all roles are supported by assistive technologies so that none of the roles fail due to lack of accessibility support.

Accessibility Support for Explicit Semantic Role

Some browsers and assistive technologies treat the tokens of the role attribute as case-sensitive. Unless lowercase letters are used for the value of the role attribute, not all user agents will be able to interpret the tokens correctly. ARIA in HTML (working draft) also specifies that authors must use lowercase letters for the role and aria-* attributes.

Focusable

An element is focusable if one or both of the following are true:

Exception: Elements that lose focus during a period of up to 1 second after gaining focus, without the user interacting with the page the element is on, are not considered focusable.

Notes:

  • The 1 second time span is an arbitrary limit which is not included in WCAG. Given that scripts can manage the focus state of elements, testing the focusability of an element consistently would be impractical without a time limit.
  • The tabindex value of an element is the value of the tabindex attribute parsed using the rules for parsing integers. For the tabindex value to be different from null, it needs to be parsed without errors.

Implicit Semantic Role

The implicit semantic role of an element is a pre-defined value given by the host language which depends on the element and its ancestors.

Implicit roles for HTML and SVG, are documented in the HTML accessibility API mappings (working draft) and the SVG accessibility API mappings (working draft).

Accessibility Support for Implicit Semantic Role

  • Images with an empty alt attribute should have an implicit role of presentation, according to the HTML Accessibility API Mapping (work in progress). However, there are several popular browsers that do not treat images with empty alt attribute as having a role of presentation. Instead, they add the img element to the accessibility tree with a role of either img or graphic.

Included in the accessibility tree

Elements included in the accessibility tree of platform specific accessibility APIs are exposed to assistive technologies. This allows users of assistive technology to access the elements in a way that meets the requirements of the individual user.

The general rules for when elements are included in the accessibility tree are defined in the core accessibility API mappings. For native markup languages, such as HTML and SVG, additional rules for when elements are included in the accessibility tree can be found in the HTML accessibility API mappings (working draft) and the SVG accessibility API mappings (working draft).

For more details, see examples of included in the accessibility tree.

Programmatically hidden elements are removed from the accessibility tree. However, some browsers will leave focusable elements with an aria-hidden attribute set to true in the accessibility tree. Because they are hidden, these elements are considered not included in the accessibility tree. This may cause confusion for users of assistive technologies because they may still be able to interact with these focusable elements using sequential keyboard navigation, even though the element should not be included in the accessibility tree.

Marked as decorative

An element is marked as decorative if one or more of the following conditions is true:

  • it has an explicit role of none or presentation; or
  • it is an img element with an alt attribute whose value is the empty string (alt=""), and with no explicit role.

Elements are marked as decorative as a way to convey the intention of the author that they are pure decoration. It is different from the element actually being pure decoration as authors may make mistakes. It is different from the element being effectively ignored by assistive technologies as rules such as presentational roles conflict resolution may overwrite this intention.

Elements can also be ignored by assistive technologies if they are programmatically hidden. This is different from marking the element as decorative and does not convey the same intention. Notably, being programmatically hidden may change as users interact with the page (showing and hiding elements) while being marked as decorative should stay the same through all states of the page.

Namespaced Element

An element with a specific namespaceURI value from HTML namespaces. For example an "SVG element" is any element with the "SVG namespace", which is http://www.w3.org/2000/svg.

Namespaced elements are not limited to elements described in a specification. They also include custom elements. Elements such as a and title have a different namespace depending on where they are used. For example a title in an HTML page usually has the HTML namespace. When used in an svg element, a title element has the SVG namespace instead.

Outcome

An outcome is a conclusion that comes from evaluating an ACT Rule on a test subject or one of its constituent test target. An outcome can be one of the three following types:

  • Inapplicable: No part of the test subject matches the applicability
  • Passed: A test target meets all expectations
  • Failed: A test target does not meet all expectations

Note: A rule has one passed or failed outcome for every test target. When there are no test targets the rule has one inapplicable outcome. This means that each test subject will have one or more outcomes.

Note: Implementations using the EARL10-Schema can express the outcome with the outcome property. In addition to passed, failed and inapplicable, EARL 1.0 also defined an incomplete outcome. While this cannot be the outcome of an ACT Rule when applied in its entirety, it often happens that rules are only partially evaluated. For example, when applicability was automated, but the expectations have to be evaluated manually. Such "interim" results can be expressed with the incomplete outcome.

Programmatically Hidden

An HTML element is programmatically hidden if either it has a computed CSS property visibility whose value is not visible; or at least one of the following is true for any of its inclusive ancestors in the flat tree:

  • has a computed CSS property display of none; or
  • has an aria-hidden attribute set to true

Note: Contrary to the other conditions, the visibility CSS property may be reverted by descendants.

Note: The HTML standard suggests setting the CSS display property to none for elements with the hidden attribute. While not required by HTML, all modern browsers follow this suggestion. Because of this the hidden attribute is not used in this definition. In browsers that use this suggestion, overriding the CSS display property can reveal elements with the hidden attribute.

Semantic Role

The semantic role of an element is determined by the first of these cases that applies:

  1. Conflict If the element is marked as decorative, but the element is included in the accessibility tree; or would be included in the accessibility tree when it is not programmatically hidden, then its semantic role is its implicit role.
  2. Explicit If the element has an explicit role, then its semantic role is its explicit role.
  3. Implicit The semantic role of the element is its implicit role.

This definition can be used in expressions such as "semantic button" meaning any element with a semantic role of button.

Accessibility Support for Definition of Semantic Role for Semantic Role

  • There exist popular web browsers and assistive technologies which do not correctly implement Presentational Roles Conflict Resolution. These technologies will not include in the accessibility tree elements that should be, according to Specifications. Thus, some elements that should have their semantic role fixed by case Conflict above are instead falling into case Explicit and are hidden for users of assistive technologies.
  • A similar conflict exists for focusable elements with a aria-hidden="true" attribute. The WAI ARIA specification does not explain how to solve it. Some browsers give precedence to the element being focusable (and expose it in the accessibility tree) while some give precedence to the aria-hidden attribute (and hide the element).

Useful Links

Implementations

This section is not part of the official rule. It is populated dynamically and not accounted for in the change history or the last modified date. This section will not be included in the rule when it is published on the W3C website.

ToolConsistencyCompleteReport
AlfaconsistentYesView Report
axe-coreconsistentYesView Report
Equal Access Accessibility CheckerconsistentYesView Report
SortSiteconsistentYesView Report
QualWebpartially-consistentYesView Report

Acknowledgments

Authors

Funding

  • WAI-Tools

Assets

  • Image used in passed example 10 and failed example 9 is courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech.
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