As a general rule, link references to documents at first mention only.
When linking to Alberta legislation, link to the HTML version available on the King’s Printer website.
The AER was established by the Responsible Energy Development Act.
When linking to federal legislation, link to the HTML version available on the Justice Laws website.
Authors are responsible for ensuring their use of borrowed materials does not violate the Copyright Act.
When linking to GoA documents that are not legislation, only link to documents available through the Open Government portal. Links to all other GoA documents should be avoided unless you’re producing a short-term announcement (like a bulletin).
Hyperlinks should be highlighted both by colour (blue) and by underlining. If you are using up-to-date AER templates, the styling should be done for you. The editors will correct documents when they come through for review.
The text that is linked should be as self-standing as possible. If a screen reader is being used, for example, the reader can skip from hyperlink to hyperlink, and the software will simply read out what is linked. The person using the screen reader should be able to guess where that link will take them without hearing the surrounding context. While AER style favours linking the minimum amount of text to accomplish this (for example, avoid linking words like the), additional text may be linked if it is helpful for the reader.1
Don’t: For more information, click here.
Do: For more information, see the Directive 056 landing page.
Also allowed: For more information, see the Directive 056 landing page.
When linking to documents, always prefer a landing page to the PDF itself. That way readers can access any important context. In the case of directives, which have individual landing pages, link to the specific directive in question. For manuals, which do not have individual landing pages, link to the general page that lists all the manuals.
Directive 056 contains application requirements. [Link to directive landing page, not PDF]
For information on our compliance and enforcement program, please refer to Manual 013. [Link to list of manuals because they don’t have individual landing pages]
We also relied on the Duvernay Reserves & Resources Report. [Link to the Special Reports page and not directly to the PDF]
The Government of Alberta has released the Alberta Dam and Canal Safety Directive. [Link to the landing page and not to any specific version of the PDF, in case things change over time.]
If the document you’re producing will be widely or frequently used in print form (e.g., a one-pager to hand out at a town hall meeting), consider including the full URL in the body of the text.
Licensees should adhere to the guidelines provided by External Body (https://www.externalbody.com/guidelines).
The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) governs the standards that drive the bulk of the internet. One of the standards they manage is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). The purpose of those guidelines is to make the web more friendly to people with disabilities.
When wondering what text to link, consider the following “success criterion” and description from the those guidelines that explains how the text that is hyperlinked should be self-explanatory.
https://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/navigation-mechanisms-refs.html ↩︎