Success Criterion 2.4.4
Conformance level A

Link Whose Only Distinguishing Context Is Its Table Position

2.4.4 — Link Purpose (In Context)

Scenario

Setting

A coworking-space booking app

What’s wrong

Links whose only distinguishing context is visual position (column meaning without header association — table semantics broken so context fails).

Example

<a href="/report.pdf">Click here</a>

Why it matters

People who browse by links list or voice commands and need unambiguous link purposes.

How to test

Read a link's context: if the only thing distinguishing it from similar links is its visual column position (with no header/name association), it fails for screen reader users.

How to fix

The link's purpose must be clear from its accessible name (or name plus immediate programmatic context), and unique among links going to different destinations.

<a href="/report.pdf">Download the Q3 financial report (PDF)</a>

Link text needs to describe its destination on its own, without relying on surrounding sentence context.

Outcome

On a coworking-space booking app, this barrier is gone for people who browse by links list or voice commands and need unambiguous link purposes — they get the same result as anyone else here.

Who is affected