Does the reader not read the title tag which states "Link will open in a new browser window."? I thought that is why we use the title tag to give more info on the link.
Thank you all for explaining the use of target="top". I will be discussing this with my manager and hopefully we will start implementing target="_blank". As for using JavaScript I don't see why you would use js to open a new window if you don't want to control the treatment of new window. -----Original Message----- From: Paul Novitski [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2005 11:54 AM To: wsg@webstandardsgroup.org Subject: RE: [WSG] another 'open new window' dilemma At 11:00 AM 8/25/2005, Janelle Clemens wrote: >Who says opening a new window is bad practice. Especially if it is an >outside link. I've been searching the web for information on this and >finding nothing. My understanding of web accessibility and 508 is to make >everything as clear a possible. If there is a guideline out there that >states "Thou shall not open new window" please post the link. Janelle, As I understand it, when a new window opens a user depending on a screen reader can easily get confused. The new window will take the place of the old one but won't have a history for the Back button. How can the user get back where they came from? Should they close the current window, close the current tab (in a tabbed browser such as Firefox or Opera), or toggle tabs or windows to return to their previous page? If they've got multiple applications open, it could be time-consuming and frustrating to find one's way back. Presumably if we include sufficient warnings within the link itself then folks will know ahead of time that a new window will open and will know how to deal with it. But I don't know if this answers all of the concerns. Regards, Paul ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************