A Brief History :: Swarthmore College

Libraries :: Swarthmore College

New Students :: Swarthmore College

Social Media :: News & Events :: Swarthmore College

Communications Office :: Swarthmore College

Swarthmore Traditions :: Swarthmore College

News & Events :: Swarthmore College

Honors Program :: Swarthmore College

Registrar :: Swarthmore College

Financial Aid :: Swarthmore College

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 2025

May 2025

Swarthmore College

Title / URL	Issues
A Brief History :: Swarthmore Collegewww.swarthmore.edu/a-brief-history	100
Libraries :: Swarthmore Collegewww.swarthmore.edu/libraries	38
New Students :: Swarthmore Collegewww.swarthmore.edu/new-students	31
Social Media :: News & Events :: Swarthmore Collegewww.swarthmore.edu/news-events/social-media	31
Communications Office :: Swarthmore Collegewww.swarthmore.edu/communications-office	30
Swarthmore Traditions :: Swarthmore Collegewww.swarthmore.edu/guide/swarthmore-traditions	27
News & Events :: Swarthmore Collegewww.swarthmore.edu/news-events	27
Honors Program :: Swarthmore Collegewww.swarthmore.edu/honors-program	26
Registrar :: Swarthmore Collegewww.swarthmore.edu/registrar	25
Financial Aid :: Swarthmore Collegewww.swarthmore.edu/financial-aid	25

Ensure links explain they open in a new tab

Swarthmore College

Where this issue has occurred