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Link

How to test a link

1 Keyboard only & screenreader

When I use	I see/hear
Tab or arrow keys	Focus visibly moves to the link
Spacebar	Activates on iOS and Android
Enter	Activates on Android

2 Mobile screenreader gestures

When I use	I hear
Swipe	Focus moves to the element, expresses its name, role (state, if applicable)
Rotor/lcm	Links can be navigated to and activated from the Rotor/Local Context Menu or by focus/double tap. Only one way is required.
Doubletap	Activates the link

3 Screenreader output for all devices

Reads	I hear
Name	Purpose and destination is clear
Role	Identifies itself as a link
Group	n/a
State	Expresses its state if applicable (disabled/dimmed)

Developer notes

Clickable textview that navigates the user outside the app (Ex: opens a browser)
Button: even if the control visibly looks like a link, code as a button to cue the screen reader the action will keep them within the app
Focus around an entire paragraph and activating an in-line link with double tap is an expected behavior. The link does not have isolated focus. (There can be only one active link in the paragraph)

Name

Clickable text describes the destination or purpose of the link
Programmatic name matches the visible text

Role

Ensure screen reader users can navigate to links from the Local Context Menu and Rotor
iOS
- Use TextView with UIAccessibilityTraitLink
- Announces as “link”
Android
- TextView - Announces as “link”
- URLSpan / ClickableSpan
- Linkify Class

Groupings

Link text can be grouped with paragraph text to make a larger touch target, provided there is only one interactive link in view.

State

iOS
- Active: isEnabled property
- Disabled: UIAccessibilityTraitNotEnabled. Announcement: dimmed
Android
- Active: android:enabled=true
- Disabled: android:enabled=false. Announcement: disabled

Focus

Only manage focus when needed. Primarily, let the device manage default focus.
iOS
- accessibilityElementIsFocused
  - isAccessibilityElement makes the element visible or not to the Accessibility API
  - accessibilityElementsHidden indicates that the children elements of the target element are visible or not to the Accessibility API
  - accessibilityViewIsModal contains the screen reader focus inside the Modal
  - To move screen reader focus to newly revealed content: UIAccessibilityLayoutChangedNotification
  - To NOT move focus, but dynamically announce new content: UIAccessibilityAnnouncementNotification
Android
- importantForAccessibility makes the element visible to the Accessibility API
- android:focusable
- android=clickable
- Implement an onClick( ) event handler for keyboard, as well as onTouch( )
- nextFocusDown
- nextFocusUp
- nextFocusRight
- nextFocusLeft
- accessibilityTraversalBefore (or after)
- To move screen reader focus to newly revealed content: Type_View_Focused
- To NOT move focus, but dynamically announce new content: accessibilityLiveRegion(set to polite or assertive)
- To hide controls: Important_For_Accessibility_false