Title Attributes for WordPress Post Navigation

Improve accessibility by adding title attributes to your WordPress userspace.

Note: This article applies specifically to WordPress 2.0.2, but may be generalized to any WP 2.0+ version.

By default, WordPress navigation links omit the title attributes for both page and post views. Title attributes for links provide additional information that can improve the accessibility of your website. This is especially true when images or text symbols exclusively are used for navigation.

To add title attributes to WordPress page-view links (e.g., links for index, archive, and category views), open the file wp-includes/template-functions-links.php and find the functions previous_posts_link (line #494) and next_posts_link (line #459).

Within each function, replace the following line:

echo '">'. preg_replace('/&([^#])(?![a-z]{1,8};)/', '&$1', $label) .'</a>';

..with this:

echo '" title="EDIT THIS">'. preg_replace('/&([^#])(?![a-z]{1,8};)/', '&$1', $label) .'</a>';

Next, replace the EDIT THIS text in each function with “Previous Posts” and “Next Posts”. Keep in mind the reverse chronological order by which these links navigate. Remember to check a few page views and then you are done.

Now, to add the title attribute to navigation links within individual post views. Open the same file as above, wp-includes/template-functions-links.php and find the functions previous_post (line #336) and next_post (line #357).

Within each function, replace the following line:

$string = '<a href="'.get_permalink($post->ID).'">'.$next;

..with this:

$string = '<a href="'.get_permalink($post->ID).'" title="EDIT THIS">'.$next;

Next, replace the EDIT THIS text in each function with “Previous Post” and “Next Post” respectively. Remember to check a few post views and then you are done.

About the Author

Jeff Starr = Designer. Developer. Producer. Writer. Editor. Etc.