Linking Policy
Texas A&M University complies with the State Website Linking and Privacy Policy.
Linking to University Websites
Advance permission is not necessary to link to www.tamu.edu or any Texas A&M University website that links to this policy (collectively, "University websites"). Be aware that University subpages may change or be deleted at any time without notice. Entities and individuals linking to University websites are encouraged to verify link accuracy periodically.
Entities and individuals linking to University web pages shall not capture University pages within frames, present University content as its own, or otherwise misrepresent University content. They shall not misinform users about the origin or ownership of University content, or in any way attempt to modify the content and then present it as the content of Texas A&M University.
Some information on University websites may be protected by trademark and copyright laws and otherwise protected as intellectual property. Protected intellectual property must be used in accordance with state and federal laws and must reflect the proper ownership of the intellectual property.
Linking to individual graphics or tables within our pages, which places the downloading burden on our servers, may be considered an inappropriate use of state resources.
Any link to Texas A&M University websites should be a full forward link that passes the client browser to the appropriate page on the University website without barriers. The "back" button should return the visitor to the original site if the visitor wishes to back out.
Links from University Websites
University webmasters may choose to link to external websites that would provide a service to our visitors. The external website's content must be appropriate to the purposes of Texas A&M University. Links will not be approved to commercial sites which charge a fee for products or services online (notices of the availability of publications or notices of conferences that charge a registration fee are not commercial sites and may be considered for linking.)
Linking to an external website does not constitute an endorsement of the content, viewpoint, accuracy, opinions, policies, products, services, or accessibility of the site. Any mention of vendors, products, or services is for informational purposes only. University webmasters reserve the right to remove links to external sites if they are inaccurate, inactive, or inappropriate.
Texas A&M University does not enter into reciprocal link agreements although we provide links to sites that are appropriate to our mission and goals. Our creation of a link to a site does not obligate that site’s owner to provide a link back to Texas A&M University.
External Web Sites
Upon leaving a University website and linking to an external site, the policies governing the University website no longer apply and users are subject to the external site's policies. Questions and concerns regarding the information or services provided by a linked site must be directed to the entity or individual responsible for that site, rather than to University webmasters.
Questions
If you have any questions about this linking policy, please contact Texas A&M IT.
Did you know?
- In the United States, about 55 million people have a disability (src: 2010 U.S. Census).
- About 1 in 5 Americans have some kind of disability (src: 2010 U.S. Census).
- The percentage of people affected by disabilities is growing as our population ages.
- Two popular, free screen readers are VoiceOver (Mac OS and iOS) and NVDA (Win).
- Good accessibility practices can improve the search ranking of your website.
- Form fields without labels can cause problems for some assistive technology users.
- Low color contrast makes content difficult to see, especially for users with low vision.
- Documents linked on a website need to be accessible too (e.g., PDF and Word files).
- Audio content, like podcasts, need transcripts for deaf or hard of hearing users.
- Online videos should be captioned for deaf or hard of hearing users.
- Using HTML tags correctly is very important for accessibility.
- Descriptive link text helps make a website more accessible. Avoid using "Click here" or "Read more."
- A "screen reader" is an application that reads content aloud to a user.
- There is no "alt tag" in HTML. "Alt" is an attribute used with the img tag.
- HTML uses the alt attribute to provide a text description of an image.
- Alt text should describe an image, if the purpose of the image is to convey information.
- If an image is a link, the alt text for the image should explain where the link goes.
- If an image is only being used for decoration, the alt text should be null (i.e., alt="").
- If a table has headers, using header tags (<th>) will make the table more accessible.
- An accessible website is one that can be navigated and understood by everyone.