New Boston ISD - Bid / RFP Opportunities

New Boston ISD - Job Postings

New Boston ISD - Adopted Budget

New Boston ISD - Proposed Budget

New Boston ISD - Board Members

New Boston ISD - School Calendar

New Boston ISD - Debt Transparency Report

New Boston ISD - New Boston ISD Historical Tax Rates

New Boston ISD - Meet Our Superintendent

New Boston ISD - Home

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

March 2026

February 2026

New Boston ISD

Title / URL	Issues
New Boston ISD - Bid / RFP Opportunitieswww.nbschools.net/61677_3	13
New Boston ISD - Job Postingswww.nbschools.net/61672_3	13
New Boston ISD - Adopted Budgetwww.nbschools.net/19629_4	13
New Boston ISD - Proposed Budgetwww.nbschools.net/19630_4	10
New Boston ISD - Board Memberswww.nbschools.net/168149_3	10
New Boston ISD - School Calendarwww.nbschools.net/91400_2	9
New Boston ISD - Debt Transparency Reportwww.nbschools.net/61679_3	8
New Boston ISD - New Boston ISD Historical Tax Rateswww.nbschools.net/61681_3	8
New Boston ISD - Meet Our Superintendentwww.nbschools.net/91389_2	8
New Boston ISD - Homewww.nbschools.net/27458_1	8

Ensure links explain they open in a new tab

New Boston ISD

Where this issue has occurred