Report it | solihull.gov.uk

Apply online | solihull.gov.uk

Support offer for carers

Council awards new Short Breaks grants | solihull.gov.uk

Councillors and democracy | solihull.gov.uk

ePay FAQs

Solihull Local Offer

Accessibility statement

Support is available this Christmas | solihull.gov.uk

Elections - Thursday 2 May 2024 | solihull.gov.uk

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

January 2025

December 2024

Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council

Title / URL	Issues
Report it \| solihull.gov.ukwww.solihull.gov.uk/report	40
Apply online \| solihull.gov.ukwww.solihull.gov.uk/apply	37
Support offer for carerswww.solihull.gov.uk/adult-social-care/support-for-carers	23
Council awards new Short Breaks grants \| solihull.gov.ukwww.solihull.gov.uk/news/council-awards-new-short-breaks-grants	19
Councillors and democracy \| solihull.gov.ukwww.solihull.gov.uk/councillors-and-democracy	18
ePay FAQswww.solihull.gov.uk/epay-FAQ	16
Solihull Local Offerwww.solihull.gov.uk/children-and-family-support/localoffer	16
Accessibility statementwww.solihull.gov.uk/Accessibility-statement	14
Support is available this Christmas \| solihull.gov.ukwww.solihull.gov.uk/news/support-available-christmas	14
Elections - Thursday 2 May 2024 \| solihull.gov.ukwww.solihull.gov.uk/news/elections-thursday-2-may-2024	14

Ensure links explain they open in a new tab

Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council

Where this issue has occurred