Little Devils | Manchester United

Man Utd signings, loans and departures in recent transfer windows | Manchester United

Man Utd Promotion Terms & Conditions | Manchester United

Fans Q&A | Manchester United

Cadbury and COVID-19 | Man Utd Global Partners and Sponsors | Manchester United

Official Manchester United Website

All the Angles | Manchester United

First time visit: View without clicking anything

Monthly Awards | Manchester United

Guide to Manchester United Tour 2018 | Manchester United

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

June 2024

May 2024

Manchester United FC

Title / URL	Issues
Little Devils \| Manchester Unitedwww.manutd.com/en/utd-exclusives/little-devils	50
Man Utd signings, loans and departures in recent transfer windows \| Manchester Unitedwww.manutd.com/en/manchester-united-transfers-and-loans	44
Man Utd Promotion Terms & Conditions \| Manchester Unitedwww.manutd.com/en/help/promotion-terms-and-conditions	43
Fans Q&A \| Manchester Unitedwww.manutd.com/en/utd-exclusives/fan-q-and-as	42
Cadbury and COVID-19 \| Man Utd Global Partners and Sponsors \| Manchester Unitedwww.manutd.com/en/partners/covid-19/cadbury	41
Official Manchester United Websitewww.manutd.com/	40
All the Angles \| Manchester Unitedwww.manutd.com/en/utd-exclusives/all-the-angles	40
First time visit: View without clicking anythingwww.manutd.com/	40
Monthly Awards \| Manchester Unitedwww.manutd.com/en/utd-exclusives/monthly-awards-2020-21	39
Guide to Manchester United Tour 2018 \| Manchester Unitedwww.manutd.com/en/tour-2018	38

Ensure links explain they open in a new tab

Manchester United FC

Where this issue has occurred