[Athen] Website accessibility

[Katherine Deibel]

I’ll stand corrected but it greatly bothers me that opening a new tab is not considered a change of context. There’s plenty of evidence that it does not confusion in some users, notably those with cognitive issues. Plus, it creates a whole new browsing context in terms of browser history.

Once again, a good example of how WCAG is the barest minimum of accessibility.

Katherine “Kate” Deibel, PhD
Library Accessibility Specialist
Twitter: https://twitter.com/metageeky
GitHub: https://github.com/metageeky

From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of glen walker
Sent: Friday, April 22, 2022 12:58 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Athen] Website accessibility


> Strictly WCAG, you need to provide an indication of this unexpected behavior as it creates a change of context for the user.


That's a matter of interpretation.  If you're alluding to WCAG 3.2.2 On Input, clicking a link and going to a new page (whether in the existing tab or a new tab/window) is *expected* behavior because that's what a link does.  You don't have to tell the user you're going to do that.

We had a discussion about this recently on the WebAIM forum - https://webaim.org/discussion/mail_thread?thread=10383#post0


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