Protective Security | MI5 - The Security Service

Latest News and Speeches | MI5 - The Security Service

National Protective Security Authority | MI5 - The Security Service

First time visit: View without clicking anything

MI5 early years | MI5 - The Security Service

The later Cold War. | MI5 - The Security Service

Soviet threat between the wars | MI5 - The Security Service

Privacy | MI5 - The Security Service

FAQs about MI5 | MI5 - The Security Service

Former Directors General | MI5 - The Security Service

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

September 2025

August 2025

MI5 (home office)

	Title / URL	Issues
	Protective Security \| MI5 - The Security Servicewww.mi5.gov.uk/what-we-do/protective-security	18
	Latest News and Speeches \| MI5 - The Security Servicewww.mi5.gov.uk/news	17
	National Protective Security Authority \| MI5 - The Security Servicewww.mi5.gov.uk/about-us/national-protective-security-authority	17
	First time visit: View without clicking anythingwww.mi5.gov.uk/	17
	MI5 early years \| MI5 - The Security Servicewww.mi5.gov.uk/history/mi5s-early-years	17
	The later Cold War. \| MI5 - The Security Servicewww.mi5.gov.uk/history/the-cold-war/the-later-cold-war	17
	Soviet threat between the wars \| MI5 - The Security Servicewww.mi5.gov.uk/history/between-the-wars/the-soviet-threat-between-the-wars	17
	Privacy \| MI5 - The Security Servicewww.mi5.gov.uk/privacy-notice	17
	FAQs about MI5 \| MI5 - The Security Servicewww.mi5.gov.uk/faq	17
	Former Directors General \| MI5 - The Security Servicewww.mi5.gov.uk/about-us/director-general/former-directors-general	17

Combine adjacent links with the same destination

MI5 (home office)

Where this issue has occurred