WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

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Re: Reason For Links Opening In New Window

for

From: Andrew Kirkpatrick
Date: Jan 8, 2007 8:00AM

The questions that I ask myself about this general guideline for
accessibility are
1) Are there web applications that are similar to desktop applications
in terms of complexity (answer: yes)
2) Can I imagine operating complex apps with all user interface
appearing in the same window - no dialogs, no extra windows? (Answer:
no)

If you are prepared to say, as I am, that we need to be able to handle
new windows in web applications then question then becomes - what do we
need to do to make this accessible? When a new window in a browser
opens up assistive technologies do know about it and many notify the
user appropriately. These same tools allow users to get a list of all
open windows.

I'm not entirely clear on the real issues that remain -- I see the ones
that John mentions in his page, but am not convinced. What are the
other reasons why new windows are still "deemed harmful"?

AWK

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of John S.
Britsios
Sent: Monday, January 08, 2007 3:16 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Reason For Links Opening In New Window

Hi all,

I wrote a long time an article about this issue, which I hope it is not
outdated.
Maybe you would like to have a look:
http://www.webnauts.net/new-window.html

Best,

John


Phil Teare wrote:
> Hi all
>
> There are many "Web2.0" type reasons for such techniques. Opening a
> new window can often give you Javascript fucntionality that woud
> otherwise be out of reach.
>
> Such as Jacuba's spellchecking.
>
> I give Jacuba as an example, as it offers AT to many for free, so
> bashing it for useing javascript in this way is not an immediate
> conclusion to be reached.
>
> For example you can use a spawned window to keep some javascript
> alive, when a user goes to another page, even if it is not loaded by
> the next page. It can be inserted by the spawned page, if created by
> one on the same domain.
>
> This affords greater freedom scope and functionality to bookmarklets
> developers, and JS service providers. Some of whom are on the side of
> accessibility...
>
> Thoughts/reactions to this?
>
> Phil Teare
> Technical Director
> Textic ltd
> www.talklets.com
>