Web Development
Web Developer Guidelines
Visual Design Recommendations

Checkpoint 3.6 - Core

All hyperlinks are underlined in the content

DEECD Requirement

DEECD Guideline

For accessibility purposes all hyperlinks must be underlined in the content of the page so as to indicate where hyperlinks are on both the browser screen and in web page printouts. When colour alone is used to distinguish a link, visitors to the web page who have colour blindness problems cannot differentiate the link from the normal text.

Recommendation

Underlining of hyperlinks is the standard browser default. If CSS stylesheets are used on the site, ensure that a:visited, a:active and a:link contain text-decoration: underline;. text-decoration: underline; is the CSS default status for hyperlinks. It is acceptable to remove the underline for mouseovers by setting a:hover to text-decoration: none; in the stylesheet.


   a:hover {
      text-decoration: none;
   }

The a:hover must be placed after the a:link and a:visited; rules, otherwise the cascading rules will hide the properties of the a:hover rule. Similarly, because a:active is placed after a:hover, the active properties will apply when the user both activates and hovers over the <a> element.

Checking Tool

  • View all web pages in the browser and check that they are underlined in their visited, active, and link states. Review the CSS stylesheet in a text editor.
 

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