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Re: tabs vs windows

for

From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Aug 19, 2014 4:19PM

Hi

<a href="#" target="_blank"><img src="newwindow.jpg" alt="opens in new
window">My Link</a>
should work in most screen readers.
Keep in mind that often these types of icon images are coded as CSS
.background images and for those alt or title texts do not get
communicated to assistive technologies such as screen readers.
For those a work around needs to be devices such as using the title
tag of the link
<a title="opens in new window" target="_blank" href="#"
class="backgroundicon">MyLink</a>
This works with most assistive technologies, but only when the link
receives keyboard focus (when you navigate using the browse mode in
screen readers the title attribute is usually not announced).
role="dialog" or "alertdialog" is used on the dialog itself, not on
the triggering element, so even the most appropriately coded ARIA will
not notify end user of this until the dialog has been triggered.
a property such as aria-hasdialog would be useful in this case, but
also if the dialogs are correctly coded it is another desired vs.
required feature, like warning a user when a link opens in a new tab
or window.

It is important not to use aria-haspopup on a regular dialog.
Inconsistent use of aria widgets, even when well intensioned, is one
of the reasons ARIA is not more widely supported or understood by end
user (that is my experience from personally working with end users,
not a scientific fact backed up by academic research).
Cheers
-Birkir



On 8/19/14, Sean Curtis < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> Ah right. Well the original question was about new tabs or windows. I'm
> guessing that just specifying target="_blank" should be enough for screen
> readers. I'd still use this even if launching the new window is done via JS
> provided it helps screen readers announce things better.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Sean
>
>> On 20 Aug 2014, at 5:52 am, "Ryan E. Benson" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
>> wrote:
>>
>> aria-haspopup (property)Indicates that the element
>> <http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria/terms#def_element>; has a popup context
>> menu
>> or sub-level menu.
>>
>> This means that activation renders conditional content. Note that
>> ordinary
>> tooltips are not considered popups in this context.
>>
>> A popup is generally presented visually as a group of items that appears
>> to
>> be on top of the main page content.
>>
>> --
>> Ryan E. Benson
>>
>>
>>> On Tue, Aug 19, 2014 at 3:43 PM, Sean Curtis < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> What about aria-haspopup?
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>>
>>> Sean
>>>
>>>>> On 20 Aug 2014, at 3:26 am, "Wee, Kim (MNIT)" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I agree - the graphical icon for new windows, external links, PDF, etc.
>>> works great for visual users and by adding text alternative works also
>>> for
>>> screen readers - but, when I tested this technique and made the graphic
>>> part of the link (not separate from the link text, which is what you
>>> should
>>> do in order to not have duplicate links read to the screen reader), the
>>> alternate text was not read by the screen reader.
>>>>
>>>> KIM WEE | WEBMASTER AND ACCESSIBILITY COORDINATOR
>>>> MN.IT SERVICES @ EDUCATION
>>>> 651-582-8548 (w) | <EMAIL REMOVED>
>>>>
>>>> Information Technology for Minnesota Government | mn.gov/mnit
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>