Bradley has it right.

Don't say $1.

Don't say $1 to go to google.

Just say $1. If you can see, you can see it's a link. If you can't, you'll get it read as a link.

And in general brevity is golden, I do not want to hear that a page has nine frames and three hundred forty seven links and then sit through a hundred word introductory paragraph that someone has put through grammarly so it sounds like every other bit of corporate spiel made from a fridge magnet set of overblown verbosity.

The reason you see it all over the place here is that a lot of people, maybe even most people, have enough sight to read the text, maybe using technology to help out, so they don't really encounter the problem. I don't know if screenreader users are in a minority but it's far from everyone.

I think they're very important.

for example: there's two links:

Link 1: home.

Link 2. Click here to go home.

I prefer link one because it's less for the screen reader to read.

This will not only be super helpful to those using screen readers, but also to other users and to search engines. Additionally, if the link was ever to break, the user knows what they were looking for so it will help them try to access it via other means (ex. search for the keyword or contact the company).

I'm a firm believer in don't make the user think. Tell them where the hyperlink is taking them.

Keep it up!

They are super useful, keep doing it.

Without sight, one of the main ways to "scan" a webpage is to bring up a list of links. They appear out of context, and if they all say "click here" then they are worse than useless.

It might be simple to visually scan the text for blue underlined links, but listening to the text for it is a real pain in the ass.

Thanks for asking!

Avoiding non descriptive links is encouraged by WCAG, but not required. Think of it as going the extra mile.

When using a screen reader you might explode a site by jumping between headings and by jumping between links. That way they'll be read out of context, so it's important that they make sense on their own.

You can even add hidden text only screen readers will pick up for things like "read more" links. Instead of 5 identical "read more" links, you can make distinct "read more about [article title]" links.

Even if what you're doing isn't standard practice, you're definitely helping. It really should be more common.

One more note: link text should also be predictable. The "Contacts" link should go to the Contacts page. Two "Contacts" links should both go to that page, to avoid any confusion.

The less descriptive the harder it is to navigate. So make the links brief but informative. And descriptive.

Thank you for bringing up the Accessibility Policy. I will re-working this in a short period of time.