Blackrod – Bolton Council

Turton – Bolton Council

Farnworth – Bolton Council

Little Lever – Bolton Council

Kearsley – Bolton Council

Bolton – Bolton Council

Westhoughton – Bolton Council

Horwich – Bolton Council

Two adjacent links should not point to the same destination. You almost always want to combine the 
two links.

For example, it is quite common to link an image and text together like this:

```html
<a href="news.html">
    <img src="photo.jpg" alt="" />
</a>
<a href="news.html">
    News
</a>
``` 

These adjacent links should be combined like so:

```html
<a href="news.html">
    <img src="photo.jpg" alt="" />
    News
</a>
``` 

Links to `#` are ignored, as these are nearly always placeholders for JavaScript, e.g.:

```html
<a href="#" onclick="approve()">
    OK
</a>
<a href="#" onclick="reject()">
    Cancel
</a>
```

# Justification

Many users of assistive technology are only able to experience content sequentially - that is, they must
step through each part of the page, one part at a time. Often this is a slow process, potentially 
hampered by a physical impediment.

Stepping through redundant links is time consuming; for example users of a screen reader must 
hear each link read aloud in turn. 

This also simplifies your code. 

# Methodology

1. Find all links (`<a>` tags) on the page.
2. Ignore links pointing to `#`, as these are usually placeholders for JavaScript.
3. Flag links which are (a) separated only by whitespace and (b) which point to the 
   same absolute URL.  

# Learn more

Read about [Technique H2](https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/H2) on how to combine
an adjacent image and texts links.

duplicate-adjacent-link

December 2025

November 2025

Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council

Title / URL	Issues
Blackrod – Bolton Councilwww.bolton.gov.uk/blackrod	51
Turton – Bolton Councilwww.bolton.gov.uk/turton	47
Farnworth – Bolton Councilwww.bolton.gov.uk/farnworth-1	42
Little Lever – Bolton Councilwww.bolton.gov.uk/little-lever	35
Kearsley – Bolton Councilwww.bolton.gov.uk/kearsley	35
Bolton – Bolton Councilwww.bolton.gov.uk/Bolton	31
Westhoughton – Bolton Councilwww.bolton.gov.uk/westhoughton-4	26
Horwich – Bolton Councilwww.bolton.gov.uk/horwich	23

Combine adjacent links with the same destination

Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council

Where this issue has occurred