Community - College of Lake County

Grayslake Campus - College of Lake County

How to Apply - College of Lake County

Jobs at CLC - College of Lake County

Registration - College of Lake County

News and Events - College of Lake County

Lakeshore Campus - Waukegan - College of Lake County

Southlake Campus - Vernon Hills - College of Lake County

Department Directory - College of Lake County

Prairie Restaurant at Brae Loch - College of Lake County

Avoid opening links in a new tab or window. Where you must do this, include an explanation
in the text of the link.

## Why this matters

Opening links in a new tab or window breaks the back button and can be disorientating for 
novice web users, and the visually impaired. Generally you should avoid opening links in a
new tab or window, but if you have to, you should include text explaining that this will happen.

## How to fix

An explanation must be clear in the accessible text for the link. For example:

```html
<a href="products.html" target="_blank">
    Products (opens in new window)
</a>
```

Or, for an image inside a link:

```html
<a href="products.html" target="_blank">
    <img src="products.jpg" alt="Products (opens in new window)">
</a>
```

Rather than updating all of your links manually to do this, you can add a simple CSS
selector, such as:

```css
a[target="_blank"]:after {
    content: " (opens in new window)";
}
```

Note that doing this with an icon, is not sufficient to pass this check. The text must be
readable by screen readers.

Alternatively you can override the link text for accessible technologies (like screenreaders),
so that the appearance of the link does not change. For example:

```html
<a href="products.html" target="_blank" aria-label="Products (opens in new window)">
    Products
</a>
```

Note that if you do this, the `aria-label` will replace the text content of the link completely,
so it must still make sense in isolation.

## Terminology

Although it is common to say "opens in new window", almost all browsers now use tabs, and
so this terminology is potentially confusing. You may prefer: "opens in new tab".

## Methodology

1. Silktide considers all links on a page with a `target` attribute of `_blank`.
2. For each link, Silktide considers the screen-readable text of the link, which includes:
   * The text content of the link
   * Any `alt` text inside any images inside the link
   * Any `aria-label` or `aria-labelled-by` text
   * The `content` of the pseudo-elements `:before` and `:after`
3. This text is analysed for the presence of common text, including "opens new tab"
    and "opens new window". If the text is not found, the link fails the test.

## Further reading

Generally best practice is to avoid opening links in a new tab or window.  

The W3C provides detailed guidance on 
[when opening a link in a new window may be appropriate](https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/G200.html).

link-text-explains-open-in-new-window

July 2025

June 2025

College of Lake County

	Title / URL	Issues
	Community - College of Lake Countywww.clcillinois.edu/community	39
	Grayslake Campus - College of Lake Countywww.clcillinois.edu/visit-us/grayslake	27
	How to Apply - College of Lake Countywww.clcillinois.edu/get-started/how-to-apply	24
	Jobs at CLC - College of Lake Countywww.clcillinois.edu/aboutclc/jobs-at-clc	23
	Registration - College of Lake Countywww.clcillinois.edu/get-started/registration	23
	News and Events - College of Lake Countywww.clcillinois.edu/news-and-events	20
	Lakeshore Campus - Waukegan - College of Lake Countywww.clcillinois.edu/visit-us/lakeshore-campus-waukegan	20
	Southlake Campus - Vernon Hills - College of Lake Countywww.clcillinois.edu/visit-us/southlake-campus-vernon-hills	20
	Department Directory - College of Lake Countywww.clcillinois.edu/contact-us/department-directory	19
	Prairie Restaurant at Brae Loch - College of Lake Countywww.clcillinois.edu/visit-us/prairie-restaurant-at-brae-loch	18

Ensure links explain they open in a new tab

College of Lake County

Where this issue has occurred