Links clearly convey their purpose
What this criterion checks
This criterion maps to 2.4.4. Link purpose (in context) (A). A detailed plain-language description is maintained in the WebLens criteria catalogue; the WCAG sub-test breakdown below describes exactly what the agent checks and what it does not.
How it's assessed
WebLens walks each user journey, captures a screenshot at every step, and an agent reasons over that evidence. See the how WebLens works for the full pipeline and the deterministic checks layered in for accessibility.
Sub-test coverage
2.4.4. Link purpose (in context) (A) is broken into 4 sub-tests. Coverage is honest about where the agent is reliable, where it only partially checks the requirement, and where a human reviewer is still needed.
2 partial2 not covered
- Image links have descriptive alternative textPartial
Our tool checks that all links — including those containing only images — have an accessible name. For image-only links, this verifies the image has alt text. However, it cannot evaluate whether the alt text describes the link's destination rather than just the image content.
- Link text alone conveys purposePartial
Our tool checks that every link has a discernible accessible name (via text content, aria-label, or aria-labelledby). It verifies that link names are not empty, hidden, or pointing to nonexistent label elements. However, it cannot evaluate whether the link text meaningfully describes the link's destination — only that accessible text exists.
- Identical link texts with different destinationsNot covered
Detecting duplicate link text pointing to different destinations and evaluating whether distinguishing programmatic context exists requires page-wide analysis and human judgment.
- Link purpose with programmatically determined contextNot covered
Evaluating whether a link's purpose can be determined from surrounding context (enclosing sentence, paragraph, list item, table cell, or preceding heading) requires human judgment. Not automatable.
How reliable it is
This criterion agrees strongly with expert review, so you can rely on its findings and spot-check as you see fit. See Accuracy & confidence for how the confidence tags are set.