Squeaky | APT version of ORMLite

Method 1 out of the options given is best.

None of them would fail WCAG as such.

However as you have pointed out 2 and 3 result in duplication of effort for keyboard users and links to the same location having different names, which is not a fail under any success criterion but is highly recommended.

Yes in scenario 1 and 4.

All 4 of the examples given would "pass" WCAG. However they offer very different experiences.

So the question is what things are we considering for accessibility?

The first is Keyboard operability. Examples 2 and 3, as you pointed out result in duplication of focus stops for the same item. So we should avoid them.

The second thing is link purpose. Yet again examples 2 and 3 are not great here as we have 2 links to the same place on the same page that have different accessible labels / text that assistive tech will use.

So we can rule out options 2 and 3 for best practices.

So what about options 1 and 4?

Well as the items are located within a hyperlink we want the link text (the accessible name for those links) to be descriptive of the product page we are going to visit.

As such option one would read: "link: Squeaky Fox Dog Toy" and the second link would read "link: (image) Red fox stuffed dog toy with white braided rope arms, Squeaky Fox Dog Toy"

The second option results in duplication of information so is not as desirable as the first option.

So we land on option 1.

The only consideration you now have is whether that link text describes the product sufficiently. Now if you sold multiple dog toys (different product types) then you need text that describes them as such i.e. "plastic dog toys" and "fluffy dog toys".

If you sell different coloured products and they all had their own page (so you don't have a colour picker on the end page, they are listed as separate items) then you would need to describe the colour there too. "Red fluffy dog toy", "blue fluffy dog toy".

Essentially you need to provide enough information that each product link is easily identifiable as to where it leads (the purpose of the link itself).

This is where judgement comes into play, provide enough information to describe the product generally in a unique way on the page, not so much information that browsing that page becomes problematic due to 100 products with 200 word link text.

So in the example given the "balance" would be something like "Red fox stuffed dog toy", and then describe the appearance in far more detail on the product page, wither in the description or in the product image alt attributes.

It is worth noting that the last option for a product page is no text at all. Just an image inside a link. The following is also valid HTML and accessible as the alt text will be used as the link text (not if an image contains any text at all that should all appear in the alt attribute).