Add accessibility attributes to Block Editor links #35234
Description
Problem
Customers using the Block Editor cannot set key accessibility attributes on links (for example title and aria-label) from the standard editing UI. This creates accessibility compliance gaps and forces manual workarounds outside the normal authoring flow.
Goal
Enable editors/developers to configure accessibility-related link attributes directly in the Block Editor link dialog so authored content can meet accessibility requirements without custom post-processing.
Target Personas
- Developer teams
- Content teams
- DevOps teams
- System administrators (dotCMS)
Demo Expectations
In a demo, we can show creating/editing a link in the Block Editor, setting title, aria-label, target, and rel in the link dialog, saving content, and confirming those attributes are persisted and rendered correctly in the output HTML.
Acceptance Criteria
- The Block Editor link dialog exposes editable fields for
title,aria-label,target, andrel. - When a user saves a link with these values, the values are persisted and remain available when reopening the same link for editing.
- Rendered link HTML includes configured attributes exactly as saved (
title,aria-label,target,rel) when values are non-empty. - Inputs containing only whitespace are trimmed on save; empty values do not produce broken link output.
- Existing content that uses links without these attributes continues to render and remains editable without regression.
- Table-cell attribute support is explicitly out of scope for this issue and handled in a separate follow-up.
User Stories
- As a developer, I want to set accessibility and link-behavior attributes in the Block Editor so I can deliver compliant markup without custom hacks.
- As a content editor, I want these fields in the link dialog so I can maintain accessible links during normal authoring.