ARIA Labels for Links

Note: If your site is in Google Sites, see our guide to accessible publication lists instead, as ARIA labels aren't available there.

What is an ARIA label?

An ARIA label is hidden text you attach to a link. Sighted visitors never see it. Screen readers announce it instead of the link's visible text.

That last part matters: the label doesn't add to the visible text, it replaces it. If your link reads "PDF (2.4 MB)" and your label says "PDF for Smith 2024," the file size disappears for screen reader users.

Why bother? 

Many people navigate a page by pulling up a list of every link on it, stripped of everything around them. When ten links all announce "Read more" or "PDF," that list says nothing about where any of them go.

When should I use an ARIA label?

• Icon-only links. A link containing only a social media icon or a magnifying glass, with no words. (If the icon is an image file, use alt text on the image instead. ARIA label will override it.)
• Repeated vague text: Several links on one page reading "Read More," "Link," or "PDF" that lead to different places.
• Building context: Helping someone understand where a link goes before they follow it.

When should I not use an ARIA label?

The first rule of ARIA is to avoid needing it. Whenever you can, write visible link text that already says where the link goes. That helps everyone, not just screen reader users, and it can't fall out of sync with what's on the page.

Two more reasons to prefer visible text:

• Bad ARIA is worse than no ARIA. A label that contradicts the visible text creates a problem where none existed.
• Browser translation tools handle ARIA labels inconsistently, so a labeled link may stay in English on an otherwise translated page.

Use ARIA labels when the visible text genuinely can't carry the information, like an icon with no room for words, or a row of short links where spelling everything out would clutter the page.

Rules for writing ARIA labels

1. Start the label with the exact visible text, then add context after it.
   Extend the visible text. Don't replace it.
2. Don't start a label with "Link to." 
   Screen readers already announce "link" before the name, so "Link to the PDF" comes out as "link, link to the PDF."

This isn't a style preference. This requirement (WCAG 2.5.3 Label in Name) exists because people using voice control say what they can see. Someone looking at a link that reads "Website" says "click Website." If you've labeled it "Doe Research Group," the software has no way to connect the two, and nothing happens. A well-intentioned label has locked them out of a link that worked fine before.

Step 1: Turn on ARIA labels for your site

You'll need site permissions for this. If these menu items aren't available to you, contact your site owner or OIT.

1. In the admin toolbar, Go to Configuration > Text formats and editors.
2. Find Folwell CKEditor 5 and click Configure in the right column.
3. Under CKEditor 5 plugin settings, open the Advanced Links tab.
4. In the list of enabled attributes, check ARIA label (<a aria-label>) to enable it.
5. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save Configuration.

This is a one-time setup for the whole site.

Step 2: Add labels to your links

1. Go to the page you want to edit.
2. Select an existing link, or create a new one.
3. In the link dialog box, open the Advanced dropdown.
4. Enter your text in the ARIA label field, following the rules above.
5. Save the link dialog box.
6. Save the page once all links are updated.

Examples

Publication lists

A single publication often carries several links, such as the publisher's page, a PDF, a code repository.

Before

Yun, J., Alçalar, Y. U., & Akçakaya, M. (2025). No alignment needed for generation: Learning linearly separable representations in diffusion models. arXiv. Link PDF Code

Repeat that down a page of twenty publications and the links list becomes "Link, PDF, Code, Link, PDF, Code" with nothing to separate them.

Fix the visible text first.

The word "Link" is doing no work. Make the publication title the link instead. That's the whole fix for the main link, and it needs no ARIA at all.

Label what's left. 

"PDF" and "Code" can't absorb the title without crowding the page, so give them labels.

After

Yun, J., Alçalar, Y. U., & Akçakaya, M. (2025). No alignment needed for generation: Learning linearly separable representations in diffusion models. arXiv. PDF Code

Course and teaching lists

Faculty often list every course they've taught, which means the same course name appears several times, each linking to a different section.

Math 2243: Linear Algebra & Differential Equations might appear for Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2022, and Fall 2025. Someone hearing that name four times has no way to tell the sections apart.

Faculty, Staff, and People lists

A directory of ten people may carry ten links reading "Email," ten reading "LinkedIn," and ten reading "Website," with nothing indicating whose.