“New Windows” are still with us
The WCAG 1.0 Accessibility Standards makes it clear that we should not cause pop-ups or other windows to appear and we should not change the current window without informing the user. There has been so much hype concerning the whole matter of ‘new’ windows but still it appears as if the debate is not over.
People are coming up with all sorts of innovative ways of attempting to comply with this guideline in the standards. When links are opened in ‘new’ windows we are seeing more and more of the following type of thing all over the Net:
Do not worry about clicking these links as they go nowhere.
Some of these things are quite cool and do assist in some ways. These methods are however NOT sufficient to comply with the standards.
You can use the cute graphics and/or tool-tip texts by all means, but these on their own are not sufficient. Visually impaired users coming in with a reader will still experience problems. Obviously such a user cannot see the graphic but will hear the tool-tip text being read out by the reader. This last is only true if the user has turned the option on in the reader to read the title attributes. By default this option is turned off in most readers. What am I saying, both of the innovative ways demonstrated here are not sufficient.
What is the answer. Good old plain text. All you need do is to warn the user that a link will open in a ‘new’ window (in text) just next to the link itself. A better way would be to not open links in ‘new’ windows at all. Remember there is only one thing that will ensure a user returns to your site after navigating to some link you provided, and that is of course good content. Nothing else will ensure that users return to your site in this scenario.
Yet another way in which you can assist in getting the Net as accessible to as many as possible.
These posts might be related:
- Opening links in “new” windows
- Providing Equivalent Alternatives
- Navigation for all
- Website accessibility is not only for the disabled
- Adding Images to our Content
This entry was posted on Saturday, August 2nd, 2008 at 9:11 am and is filed under Accessibility. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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Sailor, The thing is I know about this but I’m afraid that when I use links which will open in the same window people won’t finish reading my post.. But I’m going to try to use the standards!
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The standards do not forbid ‘new’ windows, they just say that if you use them you should warn the user about this. Many people worry that users might not return to their sites after following a link. I feel you should just leave this to the ‘back’ button on the browser, that is what it is there for. If you use ‘new’ windows you effectively remove this functionality from the browser.
You’re right.. From now on I’ll try to preserve the standards!
I actually have a preference for all links to open in new tabs, but there is no browser setting to force this.
Another browser option I currently don’t have is the ability to disable the Open in New window option on the right click menu. I keep hitting that by mistake. I enable the browser option to force links which open in a new window to instead open in a tab.
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I do not know what browser you are using but you can set the options so that ‘new’ windows open in new tabs. This is there so you can set your preference for links that have been coded to open in new windows. As far as I know most modern browsers will allow this. This setting will have no effect on links that have not been coded to open in new windows.
Over and above this you can right-click on any link and then decide for yourself if you want to open the relevant link in a new window or a new tab. This will work for any link immaterial if it was coded to open in a new window or not. I also often hit the wrong menu on the right-click menu. I often wish the new window option was below the new tab option, this should reduce the number of accidental clicks on the wrong menu.