Is the title attribute for links required for 508 compliance?

html accessibility section508
jeffyjeffjeff picture jeffyjeffjeff · May 13, 2011 · Viewed 7.9k times · Source

Is the title attribute for links required for 508 compliance or does the text in the link suffice?

Thanks!

Answer

Terrill Thompson picture Terrill Thompson · May 18, 2011

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.

Related questions

Button with icon labelled with aria-label still an 'Empty Button' error

A button with an aria-label: <button type="button" class="btn btn-default dropdown-toggle" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Sort"> <i class="fa fa-arrows"></i> </button> is still identified as an accessibility error ('Empty Button') by …

Read More
input type="submit" Vs button tag are they interchangeable?

input type="submit" and button tag are they interchangeable? or if there is any difference then When to use input type="submit" and when button ? And if there is no difference then why we have 2 tags for same purpose?

Read More
HTML img tag: title attribute vs. alt attribute?

I was browsing Amazon and I noticed that when searching "1TB" if you hover the mouse cursor over the stars rating image, you only see the score if using IE. If you are using another browser then the score won't …

Read More