Legal Programs Courses & Certificates | UCLA Extension

Public Affairs Courses & Certificates | UCLA Extension

UCLA Extension - Home | UCLA Extension

Environmental Studies Courses & Certificates | UCLA Extension

| UCLA Extension

UC Excelerator | UCLA Extension

Computer Science Courses & Certificates | UCLA Extension

Engineering Courses & Certificates | UCLA Extension

Accounting & Finance Courses & Certificates | UCLA Extension

Education Courses & Certificates | UCLA Extension

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

January 2026

December 2025

University of California Los Angeles Extension

	Title / URL	Issues
	Legal Programs Courses & Certificates \| UCLA Extensionwww.uclaextension.edu/legal-programs	12
	Public Affairs Courses & Certificates \| UCLA Extensionwww.uclaextension.edu/public-affairs	12
	UCLA Extension - Home \| UCLA Extensionwww.uclaextension.edu/	12
	Environmental Studies Courses & Certificates \| UCLA Extensionwww.uclaextension.edu/environmental-studies	12
	\| UCLA Extensionwww.uclaextension.edu/search/courses	12
	UC Excelerator \| UCLA Extensionwww.uclaextension.edu/uc-excelerator	12
	Computer Science Courses & Certificates \| UCLA Extensionwww.uclaextension.edu/computer-science	12
	Engineering Courses & Certificates \| UCLA Extensionwww.uclaextension.edu/engineering	12
	Accounting & Finance Courses & Certificates \| UCLA Extensionwww.uclaextension.edu/accounting-finance	12
	Education Courses & Certificates \| UCLA Extensionwww.uclaextension.edu/education	12

Combine adjacent links with the same destination

University of California Los Angeles Extension

Where this issue has occurred