• Success Criterion 2.4.4
  • Conformance level A

Duplicate Link Names Pointing to Different Destinations

2.4.4 — Link Purpose (In Context)

Scenario

Setting

A survey tool's question builder

What’s wrong

Ambiguous duplicated names to different destinations within same context ("Details" ×10 in identical cells).

Example 

<table>
  <tr><td>Q1: Age range</td><td><a href="/q/1/edit">Details</a></td></tr>
  <tr><td>Q2: Satisfaction score</td><td><a href="/q/2/edit">Details</a></td></tr>
  <tr><td>Q3: Referral source</td><td><a href="/q/3/edit">Details</a></td></tr>
</table>

Why it matters

A screen reader's links list shows ten identical Details entries, giving no way to pick the one for Satisfaction score specifically.

How to test

Pull up a screen reader's link list: identical link names ('Details' repeated many times) going to different destinations within the same context are ambiguous and fail.

How to fix

Visually identical Details text is fine as long as the accessible name adds the distinguishing context.

<tr><td>Q2: Satisfaction score</td>
  <td><a href="/q/2/edit">Details<span class="sr-only"> for Satisfaction score</span></a></td>
</tr>

Outcome

A survey builder jumps straight to Details for Satisfaction score from a list of links.

Who is affected

Screen reader users editing surveys can't distinguish rows by link text alone and must cross-reference every row manually.

Learn more

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