[Other - Accessibility] Redundant link text announced by screen readers. (00.00.1)

[shiragoodman]

General Information

VFS team name

Sitewide Content

VFS product name

Education rates pages

VFS feature name

Education rates pages

Point of Contact/Reviewers

Brian DeConinck - @briandeconinck - Accessibility

*For more information on how to interpret this ticket, please refer to the Anatomy of a Staging Review issue ticket guidance on Platform Website.

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Platform Issue

No VA.gov Experience Standard for the issue found.

Issue Details

Several links on both pages have title text that doesn't seem to add any value. The title attribute should be used on links only when the extra text in the title attribute clarifies the purpose of the link for screen reader users -- and usually, the better option is just writing unambiguous visible link text and not worry about the title attribute at all. On these pages, I'm mainly seeing redundant title text, which is a bit of a headache for screen reader users.

Link, screenshot or steps to recreate

Two examples:

On the Post-9/11 GI Bill Rates page, under "Full rates for school and training programs" > "Added payments," we have:

<a ... href="/education/about-gi-bill-benefits/post-9-11/yellow-ribbon-program" title="Yellow Ribbon Program">
   Learn about the Yellow Ribbon Program
</a>

Many screen readers will announce both the visible text and the title text. For example, NVDA announces this as Learn about the Yellow Ribbon Program, link, Yellow Ribbon Program.

On the Current VA Education Benefit Rates page, under "Current VA education benefit rates by program" > "Post-9/11 GI Bill (Chapter 33) rates," we have:

<a ... href="/post-911-gi-bill-chapter-33-rates" title="Post-9/11 GI Bill (Chapter 33) rates" ...>
   Check the current rates for the Post-9/11 GI Bill
</a>

NVDA announces this as Check the current rates for the Post-9/11 GI Bill, link, Post-9/11 GI Bill (Chapter 33) rates.

VA.gov Experience Standard

Category Number 00, Issue Number 00

Other References

Platform Recommendation

Remove title attributes from links when they don't clarify the purpose of the link.

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VFS Guidance

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[shiragoodman]

@briandeconinck please update the title of this ticket - thank you!

[laflannery]

We just did some research on this and this is a core Drupal issue that is being worked on: department-of-veterans-affairs/va.gov-cms#11843