Media and Public Relations Team | News | The University of Sheffield

Rankings | About us | The University of Sheffield

Contact the Giving team | Giving | The University of Sheffield

Our research culture | Research | The University of Sheffield

Research centres and facilities | Research | The University of Sheffield

Research | Research | The University of Sheffield

Governance and Management | Governance and Management | The University of Sheffield

Global Opportunities | Global Opportunities | The University of Sheffield

Your career prospects | Study at Sheffield | The University of Sheffield

Teaching | Study at Sheffield | The University of Sheffield

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 Sheffield

Title / URL	Issues
Media and Public Relations Team \| News \| The University of Sheffieldsheffield.ac.uk/news/contact-us	10
Rankings \| About us \| The University of Sheffieldsheffield.ac.uk/about/rankings	2
Contact the Giving team \| Giving \| The University of Sheffieldsheffield.ac.uk/giving/contact	2
Our research culture \| Research \| The University of Sheffieldsheffield.ac.uk/research/culture	2
Research centres and facilities \| Research \| The University of Sheffieldsheffield.ac.uk/research/centres	2
Research \| Research \| The University of Sheffieldsheffield.ac.uk/research	2
Governance and Management \| Governance and Management \| The University of Sheffieldsheffield.ac.uk/govern	2
Global Opportunities \| Global Opportunities \| The University of Sheffieldsheffield.ac.uk/globalopps	2
Your career prospects \| Study at Sheffield \| The University of Sheffieldsheffield.ac.uk/study/career	2
Teaching \| Study at Sheffield \| The University of Sheffieldsheffield.ac.uk/study/teaching	2

Combine adjacent links with the same destination

University of Sheffield

Where this issue has occurred