A minor, but potentially annoying issue for screen readers are unclearly titled links, especially repetitive links like “Here…Here…and Here” or multiple instances of “Read More”.
The reason that screen reader users do not like these is because they may be reading down a list of links to determine where to go next. A list of “here’s” or “Read More” is not useful.
Programmers of dynamically generated Web content though like “Read More” because it is a standard snippet that works everywhere. Fortunately, there is a good compromise for programmers and the screen reader audience, and I found it on Anthony Bourdain’s blog.
On the Bourdain blog, link to read more says “Continue reading: [TITLE]”. A minor tweak that is informative for screen readers, yet still easy to program by simply extracting the title of the blog entry and copying. It is also good usability because you will never have to worry about what you are reading more about (i.e. it’s not going to an ad or a jargon-filled government agency web site).
Postscript
The “Continue Reading” strategy is still not ideal because if a JAWS user is accessing a list of links to select, they will all begin with the same phrase. Probably a better solution would be “TITLE (Read More)”.