Link-in-bio page accessibility: button text, contrast and images for Instagram and TikTok links

How to make your link-in-bio page usable for screen reader, keyboard and low-vision visitors: clear button text, no menus trapped in images, contrast on themes, zoom, pop-ups, and testing where the buttons lead.

Lots of small businesses send their Instagram, TikTok and Facebook followers to a "link in bio" page: one short page with buttons for booking, the menu, the shop and the contact form. For many customers it's the first page of your business they ever open, so if the buttons can't be read or reached, they never get to the rest. This guide covers the checks that matter on that one page, whichever link-in-bio tool or builder you use.

1. Button text that says where it goes

Each button is a link, and its text is often all a screen reader user hears when they list the links on the page. "Click here", "Link", "✨🔥✨" or "New!" tells them nothing. Name the destination (WCAG 2.4.4):

Before:  ✨ CLICK HERE ✨     |  NEW!!     |  🛒
After:   Book an appointment  |  See our fall menu  |  Shop online

Emoji are read aloud by name ("sparkles, click here, sparkles"), so keep them out of the start of the button text, or leave them out. Avoid two buttons with the same text going to different places. See link text and buttons.

2. Profile picture, logo and image buttons

If a button is only an image (a picture of a menu, a flyer, a logo), the text inside the image can't be read by a screen reader and blurs when zoomed. Where the tool lets you, use a text button and add a thumbnail beside it. If you must use an image, fill in its alt text or title field with the destination, not a description of the picture (WCAG 1.1.1). Don't put your opening hours, prices or address only inside an image; write them as text. See images of text.

3. Colour contrast on themes and backgrounds

Link-in-bio themes love pastel buttons, gradient backgrounds and text over photos. Check the button text against the button colour, and your bio text against the background, with the free colour contrast checker: 4.5:1 for normal text (WCAG 1.4.3). If your theme uses a background photo, pick a solid colour behind the text or a plainer photo. Outline-only buttons need their border to stand out from the background too (3:1, WCAG 1.4.11).

4. Keyboard and zoom

Open the page on a computer and press Tab. Every button should get a visible outline as you reach it (WCAG 2.4.7), in the same order you see them, and Enter should open it. Then zoom to 200% and open it on a phone: buttons should stack and stay readable, not get cut off (WCAG 1.4.10). If your tool's theme hides the focus outline and gives you no setting for it, that's worth reporting to the tool's support team.

5. Pop-ups, sign-up forms and age or cookie banners

Some link-in-bio pages open an email sign-up pop-up or a cookie banner before showing the buttons. Make sure it can be closed with the keyboard and that the form fields have visible labels (WCAG 3.3.2). See cookie banners and pop-ups and accessible contact forms.

6. Embedded videos and auto-playing media

If the page embeds a video or music player, make sure videos have accurate captions and nothing plays sound on its own; if something moves or plays for more than five seconds, there must be a way to pause it (WCAG 2.2.2). See video captions and animation and background video.

7. Where the buttons lead matters more

A link-in-bio page is a doorway. If the "Book now" button opens a booking widget that can't be used with a keyboard, or "Menu" opens a scanned PDF, the barrier just moves one click later. Test the top three destinations as well. See booking widgets and accessible PDFs and menus.

Hosted tool or your own page?

On a hosted link-in-bio tool you usually control the button text, images and their alt or title fields, the theme colours, and what you link to, but not the page code. If something in the code is broken (no page language, no focus outline, unlabelled buttons you can't rename), report it to the tool's support team, or build the page on your own website instead: a simple page on your Squarespace, Wix, WordPress, Shopify or Square Online site, with a heading, a short paragraph and a list of plain links, is easy to make accessible and keeps visitors on your domain. Settings and features change, so check your tool's own help pages for current options.

Common mistakes

Every button says "Click here", "Link" or only an emoji.
The menu, prices or hours exist only as a photo.
White text on a pale pastel button.
Three pop-ups before the first button.
The "Book" button links to a page that doesn't work on a phone.

A 5-minute check you can do today

Read your button labels out loud without looking at the icons. Does each one say where it goes?
Check your button and bio colours with the contrast checker.
Tab through the page on a computer and zoom it to 200% on your phone.
Turn on VoiceOver or TalkBack and swipe through the buttons. See the 10-minute screen reader test.
Open your top three links and repeat the checks there, or run the free snapshot on this page against your main website.

What a scan can and can't check here

Automated scans find only part of the barriers on the pages they visit. Our scan can flag links with no name, images with no alt text, many contrast problems and a missing page language. It can't tell whether a button's text makes sense, whether information is trapped in a photo, or how the page sounds in a screen reader, and it can't tell you whether your site meets any law. Our Fix-Pack checks your own website, up to 10 pages, and gives copy-paste fixes for your platform; if your link-in-bio page is on a hosted tool, its findings there are about what you can change in that tool's settings.

Managing social profiles and websites for clients? The agency 5-pack gives you five white-label reports ($499, use within 12 months).

Altwise isn't affiliated with any link-in-bio tool or social network. This is general technical guidance, not legal advice, and it doesn't certify compliance with the ADA or any law, or protect against claims.

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This is general technical guidance, not legal advice, and it does not certify compliance with the ADA or any law.

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This guide is general technical information, not legal advice. Following it does not certify ADA or any legal compliance. Automated checks find only part of accessibility barriers.

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14-day refund promise. See a sample report first. A technical report, not legal advice; automated checks find only part of accessibility barriers.