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Re: Current best practice/standard/guideline for linking to non-html files?

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From: Andrew Kirkpatrick
Date: Oct 23, 2014 7:09AM

If you follow a link to anything, including a different web page or a PDF document there is a difference in context. I'm not sure what you mean by a "real difference in context".

A user needs to understand their environment in order to be able to adeptly maneuver. Users can select a preference in Reader so that PDF documents will be opened in the standalone application instead of within the browser, so this surely helps people ensure that the environment is the one that they prefer. This setting doesn't affect the situation that Jon raised where the PDF document is provided within an HTML page, but it will for much of the PDF based content that people interact with.

I cannot argue that many people like to know if a PDF document is going to open when clicking on a link, and as a result when we link to PDF documents on the pages my team controls we make an effort to ensure that this will be obvious. However, I believe that this represents a usability improvement rather than an accessibility improvement, as all of the content is available to users if they view the document within the browser and users have a way to change that behavior.

AWK