Topics Map > Canvas > UDOIT Cloud Accessibility Tool
UDOIT - How to Resolve Link Errors
This guide is part of a series designed to help you address accessibility errors in Canvas using UDOIT. Each guide in the series provides step-by-step instructions and practical tips to ensure your Canvas courses are accessible to all users. You can find other documents in this series here: LINK
- What are Descriptive Links?
- How Do I Write a Descriptive Link Text?
- How Do I Put a Link in Context?
- How do I Add Descriptive Text to Links with Canvas?
- How do I Add Descriptive Text to Links with UDOIT?
What are Descriptive Links?
Descriptive links use real text as a placeholder for a link instead of simply pasting a URL on your Canvas page. For example, you can say "Please use Google to search" instead of simply copying the "google.com" link onto your page.
When you copy and paste a URL from a website, it will sometimes paste into your page as a descriptive link. For example, when I paste the UW-Superior Library homepage it says: Home - Library - Jim Dan Hill Library at University of Wisconsin - Superior
How Do I Write Descriptive Link Text?
Bad Descriptive Text
"Click Here","Visit this page", and "Link" are examples of link texts that are commonly used but are not descriptive. Your link text should be specific to the resource you are sending people to visit. If you could change the link destination to a completely different topic without editing your text, it is not descriptive enough.
Another common issue is including the entire URL as the link text. This is frustrating for students accessing your context through a screen reader as it reads the entire URL aloud. URLs are not always easy to interpret, so the purpose or destination of the link may be unclear for all readers.
Better Descriptive Text
Here are some examples from the World Wide Web Consortium which provides the WCAG guidelines:
A link contains text that gives a description of the information at that URL:
A page contains the sentence "There was much bloodshed during the Medieval period of history." Where "Medieval period of history" is a link.
A link is preceded by a text description of the information at that URL:
A page contains the sentence "Learn more about the Government of Ireland's Commission on Electronic Voting at Go Vote!" where "Go Vote!" is a link.
A list of book titles:
A list of books is available in three formats: HTML, PDF, and mp3 (a recording of a person reading the book). To avoid hearing the title of each book three times (once for each format), the first link for each book is the title of the book, the second link says "PDF" and the third says, "mp3."
How Do I Put a Link in Context on a Canvas Page?
No Context Links Example
The Canvas Page below has a few issues with its links:
- The linked Britannica article URL is not descriptive.
- There is no explanation of what the student should do with the content on the page.
- There is no explanation of why the student is interacting with this content.

Better Context Example
In this version of the page the links are all descriptive links and clear instructions have been added to tell the student how they should interact with the content.

Best Context Example
In this final version of the page, we have added much more information that tells the student what you want them to focus on when they click on your links. This will make the purpose clear for all students.

Below is a screenshot of two links that would not be accessible to all users.

How do I Add Descriptive Text to Links with Canvas?
When you paste a URL link into your Canvas page, it will often provide a descriptive text. If your page has a non-descriptive link, hover over the link until a menu appears. Click Link Options to open a side panel where you can edit the link text.


How do I Add Descriptive Text to Links with UDOIT?
The first link was inaccessible because the text “click here” did not indicate where the link would lead. To resolve the error, add descriptive text using the New Link Text textbox in the UDOIT error screen.


The second link used the whole text of the URL link instead of descriptive text. Although this does technically tell the user where the link leads, it is not as clear as descriptive text. To resolve the error, add descriptive text to the link.

