Hadley Presents Podcast | Conversations on Topics Unique to Vision Loss

Local & International Partners | Hadley Blind and Low Vision Resources

Publications - Learn About Hadley's Mission | Hadley Vision Resources

Newsroom | Hadley Low Vision and Blind Resources

Welcome to Hadley | Hadley

Support Hadley | Donate to Hadley Non-Profit

Hadley Financial Reports | Non-Profit Organization

Accessibility | Hadley Blind and Low Vision Resources

Foundation, Corporate, and Organization Supporters | Hadley

Hadley Vision Resources | Free Resources For Living with Low Vision

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

Hadley

Title / URL	Issues
Hadley Presents Podcast \| Conversations on Topics Unique to Vision Losshadleyhelps.org/podcasts/hadley-presents-conversation-experts	57
Local & International Partners \| Hadley Blind and Low Vision Resourceshadleyhelps.org/partners	16
Publications - Learn About Hadley's Mission \| Hadley Vision Resourceshadleyhelps.org/publications	15
Newsroom \| Hadley Low Vision and Blind Resourceshadleyhelps.org/newsroom	13
Welcome to Hadley \| Hadleyhadleyhelps.org/welcome-hadley	12
Support Hadley \| Donate to Hadley Non-Profithadleyhelps.org/donate/support-hadley	9
Hadley Financial Reports \| Non-Profit Organizationhadleyhelps.org/financials	6
Accessibility \| Hadley Blind and Low Vision Resourceshadleyhelps.org/accessibility	4
Foundation, Corporate, and Organization Supporters \| Hadleyhadleyhelps.org/funders	3
Hadley Vision Resources \| Free Resources For Living with Low Visionhadleyhelps.org/learn	3

Ensure links explain they open in a new tab

Hadley

Where this issue has occurred