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Re: New windows and protected resources

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From: Tim Harshbarger
Date: Nov 9, 2017 8:55AM

Heather,

From an accessibility perspective, I think doing either would be fine. From a general user perspective, you might want to look at the use cases. For example, is the user likely to want to return to the page where they launched the protected resource?

If the page includes a list of protected resources and users sometimes want to select multiple resources, it might make for a better user experience to open new resources in a new page--so the user can easily return to the list of resources to select another one.

However, if you do open a new tab or browser window, it probably would be a good idea to inform all users that will happen.

Thanks,
Tim
-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Heather P. Westerlund
Sent: Thursday, November 9, 2017 9:41 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] New windows and protected resources

Does anyone have any advice for this type of situation? Thank you,

Heather Westerlund
Associate Director for IT, Collections, and Innovation
Walden University Library

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Heather P. Westerlund
Sent: Thursday, November 02, 2017 9:10 AM
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: [WebAIM] New windows and protected resources

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Hi folks,

I'm new to the listserv; glad to be a new member.

I know best practice is to always open links in the same window, even for external sites. WCAG 2.0 makes an exception when users are on a secure site and opening an external link in the same window will disrupt the session. But what about the other way around? Libraries deal with this all over their websites because of the various protected resources we offer (i.e. databases).

So my question: If a user is on a website and they're clicking into a protected resource (requires login), is it better to open in the same window or a new tab? In this situation, using the back button doesn't work as expected (you have to double click quickly to get back to the website if it you just logged in) and it starts a new session if the user navigates back into to that same protected resource (the user doesn't haven't to log in again, but it starts a new session).

TIA!
Heather Westerlund
Associate Director for IT, Collections, and Innovation Walden University Library<http://library.waldenu.edu/>;

612.312.1270 | <EMAIL REMOVED> <mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> >
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