One of the things that annoyed me when I started customising WordPress is that it likes put a title attribute on just about every link it generates. There are several reasons I don’t like that:

  • In most cases there is no option to disable the unwanted title attributes.
  • Many of the title attributes simply repeat the link text, which is meaningless – see Don’t duplicate link text in the title attribute for more info on why.
  • Unless used with care, title attributes can be annoying or confusing to screen reader users. When screen readers encounter a link with a title attribute, they may read the title attribute instead of the link text, before the link text, after the link text, or not at all. It depends on which screen reader it is, how it is configured, and the content of the title text. Adding title attributes to every link does not improve accessibility – it can have a negative impact. On top of that, title text is unavailable to some users – see Don’t use the title attribute for essential information for more info on that.

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