Underline vs. bottom border

Happy New Year, everyone.

I was hoping you could provide some insight regarding the treatment/coding of underlined links…

We currently use text-decoration: underline to underline links in body text. However, we are considering changing this to use a border-bottom treatment instead (plus a little padding so the line is slightly lower than the standard underline).

Are there any negative ramifications to using the padding-bottom with assistive technologies? I have seen some demos where users can adjust how different elements appear on the page and want to make sure we’re not going to do anything that would override or interfere with that.

Thank you for your expertise on this! -amy

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Amy Pearson | Manager, UX Optimization and Compliance
Digital Strategy & Services, Communications
American Psychological Association
750 First Street NE, Washington DC 20002
apearson@apa.org<mailto:apearson@apa.org>

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