WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: external links & new windows

for

From: Accessibility India
Date: Nov 8, 2010 5:12AM

If you are looking at screen readers in specific I would suggest
placing the content "Opens in new windo" and hide it with CSS. It even
does not disturb the existing design. If it is not a problem if the
design is changed you can place an icon near the link and provide the
appropriate alternate text as "External website" or "Opens in new
window".
If you have similar links continously you can provide the information
just before bunch of links saying "All the links belo opens in a new
browser windo"
Hope it helps.
On 11/8/10, Nathalie Sequeira < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> Hello list,
>
> I've been pondering this topic for a while now and have gotten nowhere
> definite, which is why I'd like to ask for your opinions on the matter:
>
> In the past, I had established a homogenous practice for links that went
> thus:
> - links to pages on the same website open in the same window/ tab
> - links to pages on external websites open in new window/tab, the title
> attribute containing the forewarning "opens in new window" along with
> supplemental infos on the content awaiting the user behind the link,
> when appropriate.
>
> The "sighted" rationale behind this was, that users often spend some
> time on linked external sites, surfing around there, but then may want
> to return to the "main branch" of their reading.
> For sighted users, this is achieved simply by closing the separate new
> window - as compared to the nuisance of hitting back X times or
> searching for the original page in the (possibly long!) back-dropdown
> list. This was also appreciated as useful by the user base.
> My assumption had been that similar would be true for blind users, and
> all was well --
> *until I was confronted with the fact that screen readers do not read
> title-attributes consistently/reliably.*
> Ooops!
>
> To contain the "new window" warning in visible text may be OK in a list
> of links, but it gets rather cumbersome with links in a text. And I
> haven't seen any sites doing that in ways that would be perceivable to
> screen reader users (css stylings for sighted people, yes: little arrows
> or web-icons added in, different colors, etc.).
>
> The alternative, not to link externally at all, does not feel right
> either however - due to the aforementioned rationale concerning ease of
> use.
> Leaving the choice to the user would be viable IF people were widely
> aware of the fact that e.g. mouse-users can choose to open links in new
> tabs or not (is there a similar mechanism for screen reader users?), but
> are they?
>
> So what to do?
> What practices do you adopt in dealing with external links? Do you use
> new windows/tabs at all?
> And if you do open in new windows/tabs, how do you go about forewarning
> the user perceivably but at the same time unobrtrusively?
>
> Thanks so much for any light you can cast upon this :)
> Nathalie
>
>