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Re: Usefulness of "Opens in New window" Indicator for non-blindness

for

From: Pamela Riesmeyer
Date: Feb 6, 2013 4:10PM

I frequently need to explain why we recommend against opening new windows
arbitrarily and this is useful information.

For the occasion when we still want to allow a link to open a new tab, we
have borrowed a technique that we had seen on Glenda Watson Hyatt's
blog<http://blogaccessibility.com/who-says-accessible-web-design-is-boring-announcing-new-windows-with-trendy-style/>;.
Our Web coordinator turned it into a WordPress plugin / widget and we can
include it on any given site in our WordPress multi-site installation as we
have in the sidebar of our site on Web
Accessibility<http://webs.purduecal.edu/webaccessibility/>;
.

We have tested it and we *think *it works well. It puts the "opens in new
window" at the end of the link, and it's visible for keyboard navigators as
well. As always, we're open to better ideas.

Thanks,
Pam


On Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 4:49 PM, Jennifer Sutton < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> If there is going to be information alerting the user that a new
> window is going to open, and especially if you're going to have a lot
> of such links on a page (such as a page of resources), please please
> try not to start each link with "opens in a new window." "New
> window" is at least shorter.
>
> If there are a handful in a row, that's not such a big deal, I think.
>
>
> But imagine if I used a list of links and that's what I heard for
> each link for 20 or 50, in a row? And imagine how many links would
> start with first letter "O" (for "Opens") in the list?
>
> In an ideal world, it'd be great to indicate this after the words of
> the link text.
>
> That's my two cents, anyway. My ears and brain thank you for
> considering audio overload.
>
> Best,
> Jennifer
>
> > > >



--

Pamela Riesmeyer
Web Accessibility Coordinator
Purdue University Calumet
219-989-2731/219-730-2751
SKYPE: pamela.riesmeyer
Email: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Web Site: http://webs.purduecal.edu/webaccessibility
<http://webs.purduecal.edu/webaccessibility>;