Re: changing presentation of links

I have applied the following simple principles when dealing with
hyper-links:

   - You can make the colour of links any colour you wish, as long as it
   has sufficient contrast with the background! (and it does not have to be a
   different colour from surrounding text).

*But*:

   - When a link appears in the body of text, it is either underlined, or
   has some other visual distinguishing feature (not colour).


   - When a link appears in a menu or other recognisable navigation
   feature, I prefer not to have it underlined, reserving the underlining for
   the hover or focus state - which again makes sure that colour alone is not
   the distinguishing feature.

Kind regards, Harry


On 9 November 2012 08:21, Jan Eric Hellbusch <hellbusch@2bweb.de> wrote:

> Roger,
> > Many developers now remove the underline from links, and some change the
> > colour of links from the default blue. I know from my observations this
> can make
> > the pages harder for some people to use.
> >
> > I would be interested to know what impact other people think this might
> have on
> > complying with this Success Criteria:
> >
> > 1.4.1 Use of Color: Color is not used as the only visual means of
> conveying
> > information, indicating an action, prompting a response, or
> distinguishing
> a visual
> > element.
>
> I have seen pages where the link color was changed to red and where links
> are only distinguished bei mouse over and focus effects. I have also seen
> color blind people looking at that page and saying "No, there are no links
> on this page." The color red is probably a specific case, because some
> people with color blindness see red asblack or dark grey.
>
> But even people using contrast mode may have difficulties. Althouh there
> are
> all kinds of settings which can be made for links, links that are only
> shown
> in a different color may be overseen. So it is important to add at least
> one
> more visual cue (icon, underline, font weight ...) to the visual
> presentation of the link - specially when the links are a part of other
> text.
>
> That is how I understand 1.4.1. If links don't have at least one visual cue
> other than color, then the page fails conformance level A.
>
> HTH
> Jan
>
>
> --
> Jan Eric Hellbusch
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>
>
>
>
>