Honor the Horns | University of Texas at Austin

Texas Energy Law & Policy | University of Texas at Austin

Campus Carry FAQs | University of Texas at Austin

Page not found | University of Texas at Austin

Alumni Resources | University of Texas at Austin

Texas Energy Get Involved | University of Texas at Austin

Public Forum | University of Texas at Austin

Home | University of Texas at Austin

UT Austin Military and Veteran Connections | University of Texas at Austin

Apply to Texas | University of Texas at Austin

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

University of Texas at Austin

	Title / URL	Issues
	Honor the Horns \| University of Texas at Austinwww.utexas.edu/honor-the-horns	1
	Texas Energy Law & Policy \| University of Texas at Austinwww.utexas.edu/energy/law-policy	1
	Campus Carry FAQs \| University of Texas at Austinwww.utexas.edu/campus-carry/faqs	1
	Page not found \| University of Texas at Austinwww.utexas.edu/invented-url-for-404-page	1
	Alumni Resources \| University of Texas at Austinwww.utexas.edu/alumni-resources	1
	Texas Energy Get Involved \| University of Texas at Austinwww.utexas.edu/energy/get-involved	1
	Public Forum \| University of Texas at Austinwww.utexas.edu/public-forum	1
	Home \| University of Texas at Austinwww.utexas.edu/	1
	UT Austin Military and Veteran Connections \| University of Texas at Austinwww.utexas.edu/military	1
	Apply to Texas \| University of Texas at Austinwww.utexas.edu/apply	1

Combine adjacent links with the same destination

University of Texas at Austin

Where this issue has occurred