STAART | Support | University of Greenwich

Foundation degrees | University of Greenwich

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Compliance | People Directorate | University of Greenwich

Research, knowledge exchange and partnerships for a sustainable future | Sustainability | University of Greenwich

Student Wellbeing Hub | Support | University of Greenwich

Welcome Hub | Welcome | University of Greenwich

What's on at the University of Greenwich? | About the university

Public events and lectures | Events | University of Greenwich

Find a part-time or graduate job | Careers | University of Greenwich

Sustainability | University of Greenwich

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

University of Greenwich

Title / URL	Issues
STAART \| Support \| University of Greenwichwww.gre.ac.uk/support/disability/staart	56
Foundation degrees \| University of Greenwichwww.gre.ac.uk/foundation-degrees	40
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Compliance \| People Directorate \| University of Greenwichwww.gre.ac.uk/people-directorate/edi	35
Research, knowledge exchange and partnerships for a sustainable future \| Sustainability \| University of Greenwichwww.gre.ac.uk/sustain/research	33
Student Wellbeing Hub \| Support \| University of Greenwichwww.gre.ac.uk/support/wellbeing	33
Welcome Hub \| Welcome \| University of Greenwichwww.gre.ac.uk/welcome/welcome-zones	31
What's on at the University of Greenwich? \| About the universitywww.gre.ac.uk/about-us/whatson	30
Public events and lectures \| Events \| University of Greenwichwww.gre.ac.uk/events/public-events	30
Find a part-time or graduate job \| Careers \| University of Greenwichwww.gre.ac.uk/careers/find-a-job	29
Sustainability \| University of Greenwichwww.gre.ac.uk/sustain	27

Ensure links explain they open in a new tab

University of Greenwich

Where this issue has occurred