WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Links opening in new windows

for

From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Aug 5, 2014 4:45PM

One additional pizza slice for thought.
If _blank is used in the link to tell the browser that link opens in a
new window, it is up to the assistive technology to offer user the
configuration option of reporting that.
I could possibly maybe see value in advising developers who use
Javascript to open a link in a new tab or window to add a "new window"
icon as well as a non-visual indication (title or off-screen text) as
a good usability, not as a WCAG violation.
As a screen reader user, I actually find the biggest "change of
context" to be links to PDF files that are not marked as such when the
default setting is to display PDF in the browser rather than opening
it in AdobeReader.
IE at least half freezes up with Jaws and sometimes I have to restart
the browser.
As uch as I would like to pin that on the site developers and ask them
to get their accessible act together, I cannot see that they are doing
anything. Unless, of course, they provide a file icon visually.



On 8/5/14, Greg Gamble < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>> One thing to keep in mind when providing such notifications is that you
>> should try to avoid being too verbose. For instance, your notice says
>> "This link opens in a new window". Imagine, for a moment, that you had to
>> listen to that. What are the *most* important words in that phrase? IMO
>> they're "opens new window".
>
> Excellent point ... thank you.
>
>
> Greg
>
>
>