When sharing a link, it’s tempting to just paste a URL, but for screen reader users (who often rely on link and heading text to navigate), it can be incredibly frustrating to listen to “h-t-t-p-s-colon-slash-slash…” a bunch of times. Linking to words like “Click here” or “read more” is also frustrating. To give you a sense of what I mean, I created this audio file to share how it sounds to navigate the links on this “fake” web page (below) with assistive software.
Instead of offering entire URLs, link to text that tells what the item is, for example EMS Home Page rather than just offering the address. If you expect folks to print what you’re giving them, consider using a short link, like those offered through Bitly or TinyURL (Office 365 has a built-in link shortener, as well).
Let’s keep our clicks clever and considerate!