What Makes a Good Link?

Accessibility Weekly aims to deliver a fast and informative read every week, helping people interested in accessibility learn more. To do that, I curate links thoughtfully. What makes a good link for the newsletter, you might ask?

A good link:

• is current. I prefer content published within the last two months, if possible. Older content with timeless information can be useful for the “New to A11y (Accessibility)” section.
• is accurate. Accessibility comes with enough nuance already since many of the answers are “It depends.” The information should be as correct as possible.
• provides a perspective. Good writing tells a story and has a point of view. The best links aren’t just tutorials with the facts, but contain details about how you came to learn those facts and how it changed you or your organization.
• isn’t behind a paywall or email sign-up form. You can build your customer base or email list another way. I also avoid links with strong call to actions at the end, directing people to paid products. The newsletter sometimes links to industry products with substantial new features that have a free version or tier.
• isn’t a job listing. Job links expire, making it hard to know when that happens. Job boards like A11y Jobs provide a better venue than a newsletter.
• doesn’t promote accessibility overlays. What’s an overlay? Overlays don’t solve an accessibility problem and make the experience worse for disabled people. I don’t recommend them (many in the industry don’t), and won’t promote them or any work by an overlay company.

Lastly, Accessibility Weekly doesn’t participate in link exchanges, guest posts or the purchase of email lists.