Connect | Prime Minister of Canada

Photos | Prime Minister of Canada

Mark Carney - Prime Minister of Canada | Prime Minister of Canada

About | Prime Minister of Canada

The Honourable Anita Anand | Prime Minister of Canada

The Honourable Kamal Khera | Prime Minister of Canada

News | Prime Minister of Canada

The Honourable Bill Blair | Prime Minister of Canada

Website Feedback | Prime Minister of Canada

Parliamentary Secretaries | Prime Minister of Canada

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

Prime Minister of Canada

Title / URL	Issues
Connect \| Prime Minister of Canadawww.pm.gc.ca/en/connect	4
Photos \| Prime Minister of Canadawww.pm.gc.ca/en/photos	3
Mark Carney - Prime Minister of Canada \| Prime Minister of Canadawww.pm.gc.ca/en	2
About \| Prime Minister of Canadawww.pm.gc.ca/en/about	2
The Honourable Anita Anand \| Prime Minister of Canadawww.pm.gc.ca/en/cabinet/honourable-anita-anand	2
The Honourable Kamal Khera \| Prime Minister of Canadawww.pm.gc.ca/en/cabinet/honourable-kamal-khera	2
News \| Prime Minister of Canadawww.pm.gc.ca/en/news?page=0	2
The Honourable Bill Blair \| Prime Minister of Canadawww.pm.gc.ca/en/cabinet/honourable-bill-blair	2
Website Feedback \| Prime Minister of Canadawww.pm.gc.ca/en/connect/website-feedback	2
Parliamentary Secretaries \| Prime Minister of Canadawww.pm.gc.ca/en/parliamentary-secretaries	2

Ensure links explain they open in a new tab

Prime Minister of Canada

Where this issue has occurred