University of Missouri System

First time visit: View without clicking anything

Human Resources | University of Missouri System

A to Z Index: A | University of Missouri System

Board of Curators | University of Missouri System

Inside UM System | University of Missouri System

Office of Government Relations | University of Missouri System

Office of the President | University of Missouri System

News | University of Missouri System

Rules and Regulations | University of Missouri System

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

Title / URL	Issues
University of Missouri Systemwww.umsystem.edu/	10
First time visit: View without clicking anythingwww.umsystem.edu/	10
Human Resources \| University of Missouri Systemwww.umsystem.edu/ums/hr	1
A to Z Index: A \| University of Missouri Systemwww.umsystem.edu/ums/a/	1
Board of Curators \| University of Missouri Systemwww.umsystem.edu/curators/	1
Inside UM System \| University of Missouri Systemwww.umsystem.edu/ums/	1
Office of Government Relations \| University of Missouri Systemwww.umsystem.edu/ums/gr	1
Office of the President \| University of Missouri Systemwww.umsystem.edu/president/	1
News \| University of Missouri Systemwww.umsystem.edu/ums/news	1
Rules and Regulations \| University of Missouri Systemwww.umsystem.edu/ums/rules	1

Combine adjacent links with the same destination

University of Missouri System

Where this issue has occurred