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Re: Icon-only buttons

for

From: Mark Magennis
Date: Jan 21, 2022 4:08AM

Pat,

Having a "link opens in new tab" symbol on a button sounds illogical. If it opens a new page then logically it is a link, not a button, and should be exposed as a link.

As far as I can tell, this is the view of most accessibility specialists - that role should not follow behavior, i.e. if it behaves like a button make it a button and if it behaves like a link make it a link. But some people disagree and think that role should follow appearance. i.e. if it looks like a button make it a button and if it looks like a link make it a link. Considering the experience of screen reader users, both views have their merits.

Role follows behavior means screen reader users can better guess the behavior from hearing the role. Role follows appearance means that there is less of a disconnect between the appearance and the announced role for partially sighted screen reader users, and also that it is less confusing when discussing the UI with sighted colleagues or support personnel where you might get an exchange like "try pressing the Edit button", "I can't find an edit button, there isn't one. Oh wait, there's an edit link, is that what you mean?".

As I said, I think most accessibility folks are in the role follows behavior camp but I don't have enough experience of having asked users themselves what they prefer to be able to speak for users (apart from those who are also accessibility specialists and therefore advanced users). Which is a shame because they are the most important judges of the best approach.

Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of Pat Reynolds
Sent: 21 January 2022 10:41
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] [EXTERNAL] Re: Icon-only buttons

Thanks for asking the question, Michael.

This discussion has prompted me to wonder if this is a good solution to the issue of how to inform users that a link opens in a new page? I personally like the "international" icon that informs sighted users that a link will open in a new tab (I have some sight, hand issues, and dyslexia). I wonder if the symbol was on a button (also linking to the destination) this would be acceptable.

With best wishes,

Pat
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On Thu, 20 Jan 2022 at 18:41, Michael H < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> Interesting conversations! Very helpful!
>
> Would it be wise to develop the icon buttons to scale with the text
> size scale for low vision users?
> https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/resize-text.html
>
> I really appreciate all the informative replies! Thank you everyone.
>
> I'm going to run this by my teammates and may be back with a few more
> questions.
> > > archives at http://webaim.org/discussion/archives
> >