WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

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Re: External link identification and image attributions

for

From: glen walker
Date: Jul 9, 2019 12:55AM

I typically see an icon after a link that indicates the link will open in a
new tab or window. It's often added via an ::after pseudo element, as is
the "opens in new tab" extra text via the "content" element.

To me it doesn't matter if you have four links in a row. They all need to
have an icon and/or associated text.

The WebAIM site does something like this to indicate a link goes to an
external (non-WebAIM) site. They add a background image (the icon to show
it's an external link) and use the "content" element to add "external link"
and position the content off the screen so it's not visible to sighted
users but still read by screen readers.


On Mon, Jul 8, 2019 at 12:40 PM Scott Boren < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I am establishing linking standards for WGU and one question about using
> text in the link to indicate "opens new tab" or new window in image
> attributions has come up. The main question is should we include that text
> in image attributions where there can be up to four individual links in a
> very small sentence. An example attribution is:
>
> Attribution: Photo<https://unsplash.com/photos/jpHw8ndwJ_Q> by Austin
> Distel<https://unsplash.com/@austindistel>, Unsplash<https://unsplash.com/> is
> licensed under Unsplash License<https://unsplash.com/license>
>
> Is this a scenario where it would be inappropriate to do this:
>
> Attribution: Photo (opens new tab)<https://unsplash.com/photos/jpHw8ndwJ_Q> by Austin
> Distel (opens new tab)<https://unsplash.com/@austindistel>, Unsplash
> (opens new tab)<https://unsplash.com/> is licensed under Unsplash
> License (opens new tab)<https://unsplash.com/license>
>
> Context: This is specific to images added to our course delivery system,
> Acrobatiq. I'm sure there are more elegant means of indicating this
> information through the use of icons or other code, which may not be
> possible in our current system.
>
> Your thoughts and experience on this technique and image attributions are
> much appreciated.
>
> Scott Boren
> Manager, Accessibility
>
> Western Governors University
> Office: 385.428.6876
> <EMAIL REMOVED>
>
> [learning experience department logo]
> > > > >