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Opening Links in New vs. Same Window in Online Courses

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From: Vetter, Jackie
Date: Feb 19, 2013 12:50PM

I understand that recommended best practice in online web accessibility is to make all links open in the same window so using the Back button will return to the previous screen. Because my team is in the business of online course design, it is not possible for us to open many (and, often, most) of our links in the same window. Much of the material we link to is in the form of a Microsoft Word document, PowerPoint presentation or PDF file which have to open in a new window so they can run in the program that allows viewing of and/or interaction with the file.

As a sighted user, I find that after getting into the habit of closing everything that opens in a new window by clicking the X in the top left of the screen, I tend to do the same thing when I close a link that opened in the same window. When I do this, I end up closing the learning management system and the course out completely. As a sighted user, I find this very frustrating so I can't help but wonder what kind of experience a blind person might have under the same circumstances.

Because we can't avoid the instances where we have to open pages in a new window, we are introducing inconsistency by opening some links in a new window and some in the same window. For accessibility purposes, is it better to open some links in a new window and some in the same window or would it be better to open everything in a new window for the sake of consistency? Has anyone done any research on this specific scenario?