WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: tabs vs windows

for

From: Mallory van Achterberg
Date: Aug 20, 2014 4:11AM


I like hidden (offscreen) text in a span stating new windows/tabs
combined with css looking at the end of the URL (href$='pdf') to
provide a visual icon.

I tend to add it to the end though because when I'm skimming links
I might only see or hear the first few words of it before checking
out the next one.
because I am a lazy user :P
...and if I'm "reading" with a mouse (using it like a finger to hold
my place) I hate hate hate title tooltips, even when it's got actual
useful text as in Birkir's example (99% of the time title have 0
useful info). Plus touch-interface+tooltips suck, no hoverz.

-Mallory

On Tue, Aug 19, 2014 at 06:19:30PM -0400, Birkir R. Gunnarsson wrote:
> 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