Link Clarity Extension

Navigating the web can often be frustrating when hyperlinks lack clarity about their destinations. Many websites use vague link text like “click here” or “read more,” which provides little to no context about where the link leads. This problem is especially challenging for users with cognitive disabilities or those relying on hover text to gain additional context. Without clear information, users may feel lost, hesitant, or forced to click on links just to figure out their purpose, wasting time and causing frustration. The lack of clarity in hyperlink text also fails to meet accessibility standards, particularly WCAG 2.4.4 – Link Purpose (In Context), which requires that users be able to understand the purpose of a link from its text alone or its immediate surrounding context. Solving this issue is crucial to making web navigation more inclusive and seamless for everyone.

Our browser extension, Linked’, addresses this problem by providing users with additional context about hyperlinks through tooltips. By hovering over a link, users can see its full URL and a concise summary of the linked page, giving them the information they need to make informed navigation decisions. This is especially beneficial for users with cognitive disabilities, who may struggle to infer a link’s purpose from ambiguous text. While the extension is designed to benefit all users, it emphasizes improving accessibility and reducing confusion for individuals who often encounter barriers when interacting with poorly designed web content. By empowering users with more detailed and accessible link previews, the Link Clarity Extension contributes to a more inclusive web experience and ensures compliance with accessibility guidelines.

Our extension embodies Positive Disability Principles by addressing systemic ableism in web navigation. Many individuals rely on hyperlinks daily to access resources on school websites, social media, or other platforms. However, links that lack descriptive or accurate text pose a significant barrier for disabled individuals. Linked’ provides a direct solution to this issue by enhancing hyperlink accessibility and ensuring that no one is left behind in their digital experiences. By offering detailed descriptions of where links lead, it improves clarity for all users, regardless of their abilities. Its dual focus on improving usability and enhancing accessibility positions it as a holistic solution to a widespread problem.

Moreover, Linked’ directly responds to issues that violate WCAG. Users of disabled communities expressed frustration over links that provide insufficient or misleading context, highlighting the need for better navigation tools. By centering the voices of those most affected, the project aligns with the principle of disability leadership, ensuring that its design and functionality are informed by lived experiences. This approach not only addresses a practical problem but also empowers disabled individuals by creating a tool that genuinely meets their needs and prioritizes their inclusion.

Through its thoughtful design and commitment to addressing ableism, the Link Clarity Extension serves as a model for how accessibility innovations can be grounded in the principles of equity, inclusivity, and community-led solutions. It represents a step forward in creating a web that is truly accessible to all, breaking down barriers and fostering greater independence for disabled users.

Link Hover Preview with URL

One of the primary features of the extension is the ability to display a link’s full URL in a tooltip when a user hovers over it. This enhancement addresses the common problem of vague link text, such as “click here,” by immediately providing additional context. Seeing the full URL helps users make more informed decisions about whether to follow a link, especially in cases where trust or understanding of the link’s purpose is critical. This feature was implemented using JavaScript to capture the hover event and dynamically display the URL within a styled tooltip.

AI-Generated Summary Descriptions

To further enhance link clarity, the extension incorporates an AI-generated summary for each hyperlink. This summary provides a brief but informative description of the destination page’s content. By offering these descriptions, users gain a better understanding of where the link will take them without needing to visit the page. We used the Perplexity AI API tool to generate concise and accurate summaries across all sites, ensuring that the extension supports a diverse range of users, including those with cognitive impairments who may struggle with ambiguity in link text.

Hover Text Mode for Specific Needs

Recognizing that some users, such as those with low vision or hover text preferences, rely on specific interaction methods, the extension includes a mode tailored to their needs. In this mode, users can adjust settings to enable or disable certain features, like the size of the tooltip. This flexibility allows the extension to adapt to individual user preferences, ensuring it provides maximum utility for all users.

Tools and Platforms

The extension was developed as a browser-based tool using JavaScript, chosen for its versatility and ease of integration into Chrome and other modern web browsers. Development was conducted using Chrome Developer tools, which facilitated testing and debugging throughout the process. The integration of AI capabilities through Perplexity enabled the generation of real-time link summaries.

Implementation Process

We started by creating the hover preview functionality, ensuring it was responsive and visually accessible. Once this core feature was established, AI integration was added to generate link summaries. We made sure that we were prompting the AI tool so that it generated accurate, but also short and simple summaries that are easy to read. The tooltip designs were also adjusted to accommodate the length summaries and hover text without obstructing the user’s view of the webpage.

Our extension is built on positive disability principles, by addressing the challenges of unclear link text, the extension goes beyond solving a technical issue, it creates equitable access to the web for all users. This project embodies key principles of intersectionality, cross-movement solidarity, and collective access, ensuring that it supports diverse needs and encourages broader participation in digital spaces.

Intersectionality

Linked’ integrates intersectionality by addressing overlapping barriers experienced by individuals with disabilities. It caters not only to hover text users but also to individuals with low vision, cognitive impairments, or other conditions that make unclear link text difficult to navigate. The extension overall enhances web browsing for all users. These diverse needs often intersect, and the extension provides solutions that adapt to varied browsing preferences and assistive technologies. By offering a tool that supports users with a range of abilities and experiences, the project showcases a commitment to inclusivity and acknowledges that accessibility challenges often arise at the intersection of multiple identities.

Cross-Movement Solidarity

This project reflects cross-movement solidarity by improving web accessibility in a way that supports broader engagement with social justice movements and online communities. Clearer navigation empowers users to explore educational resources, advocacy initiatives, and diverse digital spaces with greater ease and confidence. By removing barriers to accessing web content, the extension fosters participation in wider social movements, bridging the gap between disability justice and other causes. In this way, the Link Clarity Extension aligns with the shared values of empowerment, inclusion, and community-building across movements.

Collective Access

At its core, the Linked’ exemplifies the principle of collective access. By offering detailed link previews, including full URLs and brief descriptions, the tool provides more than what is typically required for web accessibility compliance. The extension’s flexibility and approach emphasizes that accessibility seeks to address the diverse needs of its users while fostering a more inclusive digital environment for all. Through its thoughtful design and implementation, our extension highlights the importance of making digital spaces more accessible and navigable. By rooting itself in positive disability principles, the project ensures that its impact extends beyond usability, contributing to a broader culture of inclusion and equity online.

Through this project, we gained insights into the complexities of maintaining compatibility across various browsers and tools. Ensuring that the accessibility features work seamlessly on all platforms presents significant challenges, as each browser and tool has limitations. This experience helped us understand how important testing across different environments is to ensure consistent functionality and usability for all users, particularly those relying on assistive technologies like screen readers. The challenges also highlighted the need for continuous monitoring and updates to keep pace with evolving web standards and technologies.

Moreover, our understanding of accessibility standards, particularly WCAG, has deepened. We have learned how these guidelines are not just technical requirements but also crucial in developing an inclusive and equitable online experience. Learning how small adjustments, such as providing alternative text for images or ensuring keyboard navigability, can significantly improve the user experience for individuals with disabilities was very informative. It reinforced the idea that accessibility is not just about meeting legal or technical requirements, but about making technology more usable for everyone, regardless of any disabilities. Looking ahead, this work can be extended by further exploring the intersection of accessibility and emerging technologies, such as AI and blockchain, and their potential to develop and innovate accessibility features online.

Additionally, the lessons learned here can inform the development of more comprehensive tools for automated accessibility testing and continuous compliance monitoring. Future work could involve refining current systems, conducting more user-centered research to gather feedback from a broader range of users with disabilities, and developing frameworks that streamline the process of ensuring accessibility across various digital platforms. Overall, this will contribute to building a more inclusive and accessible digital world for all.