Election Notices - Godley ISD

Federal Report Cards - Godley ISD

District & Campus Improvement Plans - Godley ISD

Budget and Tax Rate - Godley ISD

Long Range Facility Planning - Godley ISD

School Report Cards - Godley ISD

Accountability - Godley ISD

Community - Godley ISD

Demographic Studies - Godley ISD

Election Results - Godley ISD

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

April 2025

March 2025

Godley ISD

Title / URL	Issues
Election Notices - Godley ISDwww.godleyisd.net/about/public-notices/election-notices	23
Federal Report Cards - Godley ISDwww.godleyisd.net/about/about/federal-report-cards	21
District & Campus Improvement Plans - Godley ISDwww.godleyisd.net/about/district-campus-improvement-plans	19
Budget and Tax Rate - Godley ISDwww.godleyisd.net/about/public-notices/budget-and-tax-rate	16
Long Range Facility Planning - Godley ISDwww.godleyisd.net/about/long-range-facility-planning	12
School Report Cards - Godley ISDwww.godleyisd.net/about/about/school-report-cards	6
Accountability - Godley ISDwww.godleyisd.net/about/about	5
Community - Godley ISDwww.godleyisd.net/about/community	4
Demographic Studies - Godley ISDwww.godleyisd.net/about/demographic-studies	4
Election Results - Godley ISDwww.godleyisd.net/about/public-notices/election-results	3

Ensure links explain they open in a new tab

Godley ISD

Where this issue has occurred