Working at Future. Join the team - Future

Home to media brands that ignite passions - Future

Cookie Policy - Future plc

Terms and Conditions - Future plc

Read our policies and meet our leadership and board - Future plc

First time visit: View without clicking anything

Future and AI - Future plc

Our Tax Strategy - Future plc

Vouchers at Future - Future plc

Visit our shareholder centre to find relevant information - Future plc

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

June 2025

May 2025

Future PLC

Title / URL	Issues
Working at Future. Join the team - Futurefutureplc.com/careers/	5
Home to media brands that ignite passions - Futurefutureplc.com/our-brands/	4
Cookie Policy - Future plcfutureplc.com/cookies-policy/	3
Terms and Conditions - Future plcfutureplc.com/terms-conditions/	3
Read our policies and meet our leadership and board - Future plcfutureplc.com/governance/	3
First time visit: View without clicking anythingfutureplc.com/	3
Future and AI - Future plcfutureplc.com/future-and-ai/	3
Our Tax Strategy - Future plcfutureplc.com/tax-strategy/	3
Vouchers at Future - Future plcfutureplc.com/vouchers-at-future/	3
Visit our shareholder centre to find relevant information - Future plcfutureplc.com/shareholder-info/	3

Combine adjacent links with the same destination

Future PLC

Where this issue has occurred