ULEARN Accessibility Guide Link Has Nondescript Text

Use descriptive link text that clearly identifies the content being linked to (e.g., "Class Schedule" instead of "Click Here" or "schedule.html").

[Course Navigation]

User Experience

What You May Experience

García Márquez won the Nobel Prize in 1982 for showing the world how Latin America’s history of beauty and violence could be told through magical realism—making the marvelous feel real, and the real feel marvelous. Read his Nobel Prize lecture: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1982/marquez/lecture/. For a full list of García Márquez's works, click here.

What Students May Experience

Transcript

Why This Matters

Links act as navigational signposts, directing students to important resources, assignments, and course materials. When link text is vague—such as “click here” or “read more”—it does not provide enough context for students to understand the link’s destination or purpose. This can be particularly challenging for students who rely on keyboard navigation. As they tab through a page, each link may appear visually identical in focus, making it difficult to determine which link leads where. This slows down navigation, increases cognitive load, and can create unnecessary barriers to completing tasks efficiently.

For students using screen readers, links presented as full URLs can be especially tedious and unhelpful. URLs often contain long strings of numbers, letters, or symbols that convey little or no meaningful information, requiring students to expend extra effort to understand the link’s relevance. This can make the learning experience frustrating and less accessible.

Even students not using assistive technology benefit from descriptive link text. Clear, meaningful links allow all students to scan content quickly, understand the purpose of each link, and navigate confidently to the resources they need. In short, descriptive link text enhances accessibility, usability, and overall efficiency, ensuring that all students can interact with course materials effectively.

How to Fix It

Fix in Canvas: Place your cursor in a link in the Canvas RCE, then select "Link Options." Edit the text to clearly convey the content that students are being redirected to.
Fix with DesignPLUS: Select a link and make sure that "Link" is the active element in the DesignPLUS sidebar's Current Element tab. Open the "Content" panel and edit the Link Text to make it descriptive.
Fix in UDOIT: When you come across a "Link Has Nondescript Text" in UDOIT, select it and use the Preview Changes screen to review the link: you can select it to navigate to the linked resource, or switch to HTML view to see the full URL (helpful when the link text is vague, such as “click here”). Once you understand where the link leads, update the link text in the left-hand panel. Be sure to "Save" your changes before moving on to the next issue.
- When available, UFIXIT will automatically retrieve and suggest the content or video title, making it quicker and easier to apply meaningful link text. In this case, select "Use Suggested Link Text" to replace the generic link text with the more descriptive title. Be sure to select "Save" before moving on to the next issue.

Link Length

There is no strict rule or recommended character count for link text, so determining whether your link is too long or too short requires careful judgment. The goal is to make the link text clear and descriptive enough for all students to understand its purpose without having to read the surrounding content. Link text should be long enough to convey meaning, but concise enough to avoid unnecessary complexity or clutter.

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Last Updated: Jul 28, 2026, 8:50 AM

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